How a Custom Sculpture Is Made From Brief to Crate

Brief: Three Things Are Enough to Start

Where the piece goes, roughly how tall you want it, and any image you already have. A photograph of the space, a sketch, a render or a magazine tear sheet all work. What that cannot produce yet is a firm price, because the material and the structure are not settled.

Design: the Only Free Place to Change Your Mind

Our designers develop the form and return views for approval. Changes here cost nothing. Changes after cutting cost material and time, and changes after welding often cost the panel. This is why we push to settle the design fully before anything is cut, even when a programme is tight.

Material and Grade: Decided by the Position

304 inland, 316 or 316L near the coast or in contact with treated water, Corten where a warm unpainted mass suits the landscape, fiberglass where the form is modelled rather than fabricated. The position drives this, not the preference.

Engineering: Base Plate and Anchor Pattern

The internal frame is sized to the piece, and the base plate and anchor pattern are issued as a drawing before fabrication finishes. That single document lets the foundation be cast and cured in parallel instead of after delivery.

Fabrication: Cutting, Forming, Welding

Flat patterns are developed and cut, panels are formed over shaped bucks in stages, and seams are welded with matched filler, staged to spread the heat. All of it happens in the same workshop as the finishing, which is what keeps responsibility for the surface in one place.

Finishing: Where the Hours Go

Seam dressing and polishing account for a large share of the labour on a mirror piece. Every seam is ground level before polishing starts, and polishing runs through successive grits with checks under raking light between stages.

Approval: Before the Crate, Not After

The finished piece is stood up in the workshop and photographed from every side for written approval. The first time a client sees a sculpture should never be when the crate is opened on site.

Packing and Freight

A plywood crate is built around the finished geometry with foam contact on every finished face. Large pieces ship in marked sections with a packing list, dimensions and weights so a forwarder can book accurately.