The design process for each piece begins with Karen. (Art will tell you I get my best ideas in the shower!) Listening to our customers suggestions, studying Mother Nature, and in general trying to appreciate the world around us. My focus leans towards the beauty of the flora and fauna of the places we have inhabited. Once I get the design in my mind I translate that to Art who has yet to fail me in making my vision take life. Not without lots of research and development, but in the end we come to a mutual agreement and proceed to the creating.
Each piece that we create is made from various gauges of cold rolled steel. From 18ga to 12 ga depending on the piece to be made. We have a full machine shop on our 20 acres which includes a plasma cutter for the cutting of our intricate scenes and figures. Each piece that is made is fabricated, TIG welded and sandblasted before being painted. The sandblasting is a necessary step to remove the mill scale from the steel .Without this process the paint would not adhere to the product.
Once it is sandblasted, the piece moves to the paint booth where I apply a coat of primer. When the primer is dry, I then apply a Rustoleum base coat of black texture paint. Then it is on to applying the various acrylics and enamels I use to produce the colors on each piece. I either sponge or use a brush to apply these colors. Once the color process is complete, the product then goes back into the paint booth for the protective polyurethane clear coat. All of our paint is produced in the USA and does not contain any lead.
Our large garden sculptures such as our garden moose are rusted by Mother Nature right outside our shop.