Graham House - Front Door 'Grill'

This is the current project that I'm 'working' on (baring an evil cold and freezing shop temperatures!). I had hoped to have the piece finished and installed by the end of December, but have been out of the shop for two weeks (see above).

The customer has a late 50's / early 60's bungalow in Guelph. The front door has a large, narrow glass panel set into it, so the underlaying intent is to provide increased security. At the same time, the piece needs to make a dramatic impact on what is otherwise a pretty plain exterior.

I wanted to move away from any kind of standard grill work. The customer was quite taken with the 'Lilly Arbor' piece I had done a couple of years back. So, keeping with those general lines, the piece is composed of a spray of curved elements. These are made of roughly 1 inch diameter steel pipe. The curves are forged against my heavy layout table surface using a wooden mallet. The top end of each tube is split and forged back to a pair of irregular curves. A similar set of curved forms has been made for the bottom of each element. The main bars will be held in place by a pair of curved flat bars, 1 1/2 x 3/16 thick. These elements will have matching hot punched holes to accept the curved pipe. When assembled, the lower ends will be welded in place and these joints ground smooth. The upper ends of each of the curved elements are set with a pair of half circle pieces forged from 3/4 inch angle. These curves (not completed yet in the image) bracket and hold a large (10 inch) glass disk.
The overall effect is highly decorative, disguising the fact that the main elements are extremely strong and spaced to block any possible passage through the glass panel underneath.

I expect to get back into the workshop either today or tomorrow!