Designing - from concept to reality

Ever wonder how a design progresses from a vague concept into reality? 

Sometimes it's a quick process – as I imagine most artists have designs rattling around their brain, and can rapidly turn their designs into reality.

Other times, it's painstakingly slow, with changes and reiterations happening almost daily.

I've worked with a very creatively-minded couple for the past 10 years, having built many pieces of furniture for them, as well as smaller accessories for their home. They travel the world collecting artifacts – and their eye for unique items never fails to impress me. 

Years ago – they came to me with a door knocker collection, asking me for a creative way to display them. They said they'd be happy with mounting the door knockers on just a simple board, to display them.

But I took that as a challenge - and I made quarter sized doors to mount each door knocker on -  here are the first two I made. They are actual working doors with a shadowbox inside of them.

Buy that final door knocker that I had to work with gave me fits!

First of all, it's heavy – and very big. This isn't the exact one I was working with, but it's very close. About 8" long, and roughly 2.5 pounds of solid copper.

I mounted this door knocker on a sample piece of wood, but its weight caused the board to topple over. So I knew making a door/shadowbox as I had before wouldn't work. The weight of this door knocker would cause the whole piece to topple. 

Back to square one... 

In the beginning, I worked with the idea of making a round door, because I felt that fish imagery lent itself toward curves. 

As with all designers, I flooded my brain with images to stir up more inspiration. Because the door knocker is a giant fish, the design I wanted had to include some inspiration with water. So I played around with aquatic themes. I'll admit – I was struggling with this, because of the parameters I had to work with, size wise. (More about that later.)

Meanwhile, I was at another client's home a couple of weeks ago; she's creative and inspiring. I brought up this design, and that I was struggling with it. It was a classic “analysis paralysis” that I was experiencing, where too many designs decision decisions muddy the waters, making it difficult to choose just one. My friend gave me a bit of a pep-talk, as well as made me promise that I would go home and settle on one design.

Easier said than done!

Back in my studio - I had more than a few designs rattling around in my brain. But I was determined to finish this project. It's only been four years since I started this! 

This pendant started me thinking about water themes. 

And away I went.... down the design rabbit hole... 

I searched for some door inspiration,  

  hoping to fit the knocker with the door.

And I'm embarrassed to say that the clients emailed me a few times, asking about the progress of this final piece. As they added more pieces to their collection in the gallery/room in their house over the years, the space that they had saved for this last door knocker shrunk. 

So aside from struggling with the design, I was also limited in size. To be honest, I was ready to call them and give the knocker back. 

But I kept thinking about the words from my friend, who basically said - get to work!

And that's just what I did - pulled out the sketchbook, came up with a scaled model in cardboard, then finally pulled out the block of Sapele that I'd been saving for a "special" project.  A little carving, milk-paint and some lacquer and it was finished in a flash.

 (Thanks for the pep talk, Heidi!) 

It's the best feeling in the world to call a client and tell them their project is complete. 

PS.... they received the piece today and were beyond thrilled.  I'm so relieved to have this off my mind!