Why am I so excited about bronze hardware?
In 2012 I was working at the Museums of Fine Art San Francisco, managing a couple of sales teams that were in charge of selling audio tours. While I loved being at the museum every day and was very happy with my courteous and professional sales team, I was not happy with the position itself. I planned to step down from my role and spend a good few months devoted to blacksmithing.
When it was time to quit my husband told me, don't find another job, I think you can make it as a blacksmith. (What a good man he is.) And so I did. I spent a lot of time teaching at The Crucible and learning from the head of the smithy, Chris Neimer. He had decades of blacksmithing experience and had owned a business doing ornamental ironwork. I worked a couple of years for Jerry Coe, who does masterful bronze work. In addition to working for others, I wanted to work for myself.
From the time I left my job at the museums, I began trying to find a way to sell my ironwork. I got my first railing job from someone I had worked with. I got an order for whimsical curtain rods for a salon through the recommendation of a friend. From the start I knew there needed to be a steady stream of income. In art school I heard it termed as a "bread and butter" item. It's the one repeatable product that you go to when you need to pay the bills, that you make over and over again so you can keep making more art.
For my first gift show in 2012 I created wrought iron plant hangers and brackets for shelves. They were slightly over forged. My early work had a few too many tooling marks and missed hammer blows. But the designs were simple and elegant. I still enjoy them, as they are installed all over my house today. The fact that they are in my house should tell you something. . . they did not sell.
After that I did a small run of stainless steel bathroom hardware. The design on that one might have been a tad overwrought. One person remarked that it's the kind of toilet paper holder that Elrond would use, referring the Lord of the elves from Lord of the Rings. An even bigger caveat was that stainless steel is incredibly difficult to forge and even more difficult than that to clean so that it remains stainless. This product also did not sell. I tried making towel bars out of copper pipe with beautiful varied patinas and fancy hardware. I received an enthusiastic response to the design. I sold one.
I shelved the idea of hardware for a few years. I still wanted my bread and butter item.
Then came the Kickstarter tables. For the Kickstarter I designed some elegant custom made tables. The first table I made took me eight hours to put together. The second one took me four. The next one, a very small small side table, took me two. It seemed like a good product. I sold about fifteen tables, but I had some issues. My amazing perfectionist woodworker was charging me half her hourly rate for the table tops and her time and the cost of wood took up a very large portion of the budget. I found that there was a lot of locally made tables selling for much less so the demand was not high. In the end the tables have a similar margins to my architectural work, and I am still the one making each one. I am still happy to make them, but they are not my production item.
After so many attempts, I believe I have finally found it. I am making forged bronze hardware. I am starting with bathroom hardware but I have plans for much more. Maybe I am hopelessly optimistic, but I am very excited for this product. Why? I believe I understand the design market a lot better. These items are elegant and unique but not so overwrought that they feel unfamiliar. There are other luxury brands creating bronze hardware and getting plenty of sales of their product. I can make them locally and price them competitively. I bring a unique artistry to my designs. These can be marketed to designers and architects and shipped nationwide. I am determined to make this one work! I don't feel any uncertainty here. After almost a year of experiments and iterations I know I have made a beautiful and valuable product. I can't wait to find other people who will agree.
