Copper lace table | Metalier Liquid Metal
Evoque copper lace table
The copper lace table featured is the result of a design collaboration between Amanda Neill of Designworx and Metalier Coatings.
This copper lace table is the first piece in a line of tables Amanda has created as a collection. The design is typical of Amanda’s work – it is striking, it is “out there”, it is utterly gorgeous and it is very different. Amanda loves colour, boldness and everything exotic. It is exciting working with her and stretching the capabilities of the Metalier Coatings Amanda chooses to use.
This nostalgic and romantic copper lace table was created using real lace which is applied to the surface of the piece and over the edges. Metalier Coatings are sprayed through the lace to create the pattern. After curing the copper is polished and then patinated. A dark patina was applied to give the pattern an aged look. A green patina was used to create the Verdigris look in the stripe in that runs off centre through the table.
The finishing touch was Metalier’s Nano Clear coat which is applied in a very thin but robust layer. The nano clear ensures that the finish doesn’t oxidise beyond the desire look and it protects the surface.
The legs of the copper lace table are all hand lathed from solid wood. Each leg is different and each is finished in aged copper.
The copper lace table dimensions are 1000 x 1000 x 450mm. You can purchase the table through Designworx or by contacting Metalier directly.
Metalier has also competed a hall table in this collection. Three other pieces will be completed in the early part of 2016.
Metalier is always keen to work with designers and creatives to help them to realize their ideas. To contact us either click here or complete the form below.
General Contact Form
Metal Veneer | Brass | The Sugar Club
Metal Veneer | Brass showcased at The Sugar Club
Metal Veneer | Brass is showcased at The Sugar Club in the Sky Tower in Auckland City. It sits alongside sheet brass in a homogeneous glorious glamorous fit out. It’s a suitable background for Peter Gordon’s extremely scrumptious fusion food. One of our favourites is Beef Pesto. It was on the menu at Peter’s original Sugar Club back in 1987. His dining guests won’t let him take it off.
Metal Veneer | Brass in the private dining room
Private dining is the height of special. Metal Veneer | Brass is the outstanding decorative feature of the private dining area. Metal Veneer | Brass coats the MDF panels on the outside of the dining room and the inside too. A lovely cocoon of brass!
Even the Powder Room has a touch of Metal Veneer | Brass
The porthole surrounds in the Gent’s and the Ladies’ Powder Rooms are Metalier Liquid Metal Brass. You can bend sheet metal, of course, but the Metalier Solution of Metal Veneer in brass was more cost-effective and much easier to handle.
The Entrance Doors are Metal Veneer |Brass on a steel substrate
Metalier again shows its versatility on the grand front entrance doors to the restaurant. It is brass and glass. You can see them in the projects section of this website and on most of The Sugar Club’s own sites. If applying metal to metal it is necessary to create a barrier between the two metals to avoid osmosis occurring. The Metalier team are old hands at the procedure, however.
Just in case you didn't know, brass is an alloy of copper and Zinc. As well as being used in decoration brass is used in musical instruments for its acoustic properties. It is a very popular choice of metal currently and teams beautifully with white or black.
At Metalier Liquid Metal we have lots of ideas for creating beautiful things in brass – and other metals too.
Contact us to make your golden dreams come true.
General Contact Form
Metal Doors | Metalier Liquid Metal
Creating beautiful metal doors
Creating beautiful metal doors is one of the things we like best and do best at Metalier Liquid Metals. We enjoy it so much because it enables us to work closely with clients, designers and builders to create a special “Wow” feature for homes, apartments, offices, restaurants and shops.
Your involvement in the process can be as much or as little as you like. There is a door on the floor of the workshop in Henderson right at the moment which is very much a “hand’s on” project. Samples have been created which the clients love. “Awesome” was the word they used.
And just this week the designer has been in to mark out where she wants to locate the pattern lines. The metal being used - our smoky bronze is a sultry moody colour. The door itself is huge 2100 x 2200 – a total of 10 sq m including both sides and the edges. The door is going to be an indoor feature in the lounge/living area. And feature is the operative word. It is going to be spectacular. Pictures are promised.
Metal doors can be created using a variety of substrates
One of the benefits of Metalier is that it will adhere to almost any substrate. The only things which are “no go” are silicone, waxed objects and people! Metalier will adhere to anything that can be keyed to create a rough surface. We couldn’t do a Goldfinger James Bond lady, for example. (I was very disappointed to learn that death by gold painting was scientifically impossible.)
The most common substrates for doors, both indoors and out are wood and aluminium. Both deliver excellent results.
One of the things that gives us the most satisfaction is delivering to the clients expectations on budget and on time. And don’t think that a metal door is unaffordable. It’s not and we can show you how.
If you want to make a statement contact us by telephone or email or complete the form below.
General Contact Form
Copper and Iron together | Metalier Liquid Metal
A copper and iron mix – what shall we call it?
Copper and iron experimentation with rust have produced a beautiful new finish from the team at Metalier HQ. Actually it was Will, the Manager, who made the finish but everyone else chipped in with suggestions. To date we haven’t named it but suggestions have been Mars, Mars Sand, Martian and The Outback. We’re inclined to something leaning towards Mars. There has been recent strong evidence of water on the planet, and as we’re keen sky-gazers, we thought we should honour that discovery. You’d need some water to create the rust, perhaps?
Copper and iron together have medical associations
If you google “copper and iron” the first page is almost entirely taken up with medical and metabolism references. There is one reference, however by the Copper Development Association to the fact that copper has been used for many years to modify the properties of steel and cast irons.
Metalier’s interest in Copper and Iron is purely aesthetic, however.
The new finish is elegant, it blends high polish with rustic rust and allows the rust to look very sophisticated. We can’t wait to see it on a reception desk, or lift doors – maybe a fireplace surround or on a super yacht. We still can’t help being amused by the audacious designer who put rust next to white velvet in the saloon of a super yacht. The contrast of styles and aesthetics was just stunning.
It sounds like a cliché to say that the options with Metalier are unlimited but it is actually true. If we provided samples of every finish we’ve ever done the sample boxes wouldn’t be 19cm long (that’s 7 ½ inches for Americans and old people) they would fill a whole bookcase – a bit difficult to lug around for presentations.
If you would like to tell us what you think we should call this new finish or order it, or something else for yourself, please contact us or complete the form below.
General Contact Form
Opera Stage Sets | Metalier Liquid Metal
The opera stage set is an important part of the art
At Metalier HQ we’re very interested in opera stage sets and opera stage design. In fact we confess that opera is our favourite type of classical music. (We’re fond of Leonard Cohen, Bob, Fleetwood Mac and the Beatles too.)
Living in New Zealand we don’t get much live opera so we’ve been devotees of the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series. This series, which you view at a cinema, takes you to an opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. A live performance at the opera is filmed and transmitted immediately to a live audience at many places round the world. It is also recorded of course and the recordings are played in cinemas. That’s what we go to see.
Most of the popular operas have already been performed including Wagner’s Ring Cycle. One of the operas took 6 hours and we had to have a dinner break in the middle.
The opera stage set for the Ring Cycle was captivating
The opera stage for Wagner’s Ring Cycle was deceptively simple and modern. It involves 24 identical wedges which are able to rotate independently on a horizontal axis across the stage. This provides level, slopping, angled or moving surfaces facing the audience. Bubbles, falling stones, fire and all sorts of colours are projected onto these surfaces. The visuals are linked by computer with the movement of the characters and the music. Just magical!
Rhine maidens could slip down the blue slopes of the surfaces – in fact it looked very slippery. The Valkyries rode them like horses. It’s impossible to describe the effect in words but you can watch the opera stage in action on this Youtube video of the Ride of the Valkyries.
And the relevance to Metalier you ask? Well it looks very much to us that the opera stage is made of metal. Indeed that’s logical because only a shiny surface would be able to reflect the light, flame and bubbles sufficiently. We rather fancy doing an opera stage set or maybe a movie set so if you’re thinking about creative we’d love to hear from you. We like the Valkyries' metal costumes too - Metalier Flexible metal could be the go here too.
If you want to talk to us about your next creative idea, musical or otherwise, or want to talk to us about opera or even sing to us you could contact us or complete the form below. Either way, we’re looking forward to it.
General Contact Form
Metalier saves $6.3 million dollars on kinetic sculpture
Metalier liquid metal and kinetic artists create affordable design
Kinetic Sculpture is just one way in which Metalier liquid metal can demonstrate its cost-effectiveness. Admittedly kinetic sculpture is not exactly a mainstream commercial avenue for liquid metal. It does, however, provide a stunning comparison between the costs of using Metalier as against sheet metal.
Len Lye Foundation Engineers have looked to Metalier.
Len Lye’s kinetic sculpture was way ahead of its time and many of his ideas are still to be executed. Metalier has been invited to test its coating on a particular work of art that Canterbury University engineers are building. The design which is on a civic scale involves seven 50 metre strips of stainless steel that move like a serpent and hit an end piece that makes a light flash.
The strips of stainless steel are estimated to cost $1 million dollars each. This makes the sculpture cost well over $7 million dollars. This is big money even at a civic level, or perhaps one should say, especially at a civic level. Manufactured in fibreglass and coated with Metalier liquid metal the strips are estimated to cost, in total, about $700,000 – 10% of the cost of the stainless steel sheet metal. This is a saving of $6.3 million dollars.
Canterbury University are naturally keen to test Metalier for this role. So far our own tests indicate that the metal coating will withstand the pressure put on it by the kinetic action. Some of the strips lie in water when they are not being serpents and we know that water presents no problem for Metalier. The real question now is how the fibreglass strips will perform.
Kinetic sculpture waves in the breeze.
I don’t know about you but I find kinetic sculptures mesmerizing. I could watch them for hours swaying and changing as the wind blows. Students at Canterbury University are working right now on a wand to be made of fibreglass or carbon fibre which will be coated with Metalier liquid metal. This will be a great test for the Metalier coatings and another way we can showcase them to the world.
Please enjoy the sculpture Kinetic Rain in Changi Airport Singapore by German design firm Art+Com. This sculpture moves by computer-controlled motors rather than the wind. Rather better for indoors we think.
Artists, sculptors and kinetic addicts can contact us right here or fill in the form below to get in touch.
General Contact Form
Yarn bombing | A Texan art-form
Yarn bombing - Something completely different!
Yarn-bombing was something new to the team from Metalier when it finished its world travels with a final stop-over in Austin Tx. Austin, with its wonderful city slogan “Keeping Austin Weird” is the birthplace and home of the Metalier Nano Clear Coat so it was a fitting place for the team to visit.
Yarn bombing began in Houston, Texas in 2005 when Magda Sayeg cover her door handle with a cozy. The movement is now a worldwide one and goes under varying names such as yarnstorms
Guerilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting and graffiti knitting. In fact, it is a form of graffiti and illegal in many places but its non-permanent and doesn’t damage the substrate.
It’s different from usual graffiti forms too. It’s mainly about reclaiming cold and sterile public spaces and doesn’t have the darker side of usual graffiti. It is an art form and can be very pretty – like the trees in the picture above.
The yarn bombing movement is not without wit either. One artist calls herself Deadly Knitshade and in London UK there is a city knitting collective called “Knit the City”. There is a Knit Knot Tree display in Yellow Springs, Ohio. It was set up by the jafagirls as a thank you to trees for helping humanity. In New York City Yarn Bombing has been used for pole warming. It’s whimsical clever and fun.
At Metalier, we haven’t tried to knit with our metal coatings but we do use fabric, and lace in particular, to create stylish clever patterns. And we do have our flexible binder which can be used on fabric, cloth and rubber moulds.
We love to talk to you about your designs so contact us here or complete the form below.
General Contact Form
Metalier in France
Metalier in France will be supported by the Hub in Birmingham, UK.
Contact details for the European hub at Granlyn are here.
But the HQ reps visiting the hub actually took a bit of time out in France to visit the Department of Ardeche in the Central Massif . The Ardeche is one of the poorest and least populated departments in the whole of France but it is also one of the most beautiful. The hills of Ardeche couldn’t be anywhere else but France.
High on the list of priorities was a climb to the summit of Mont Mezenc, the highest mountain in the area. This was accompanied by a French lesson, largely unsuccessful, in how to pronounce differently “maison” for house and “mezenc” for the mountain. Sigh.
Mezenc is actually a very interesting area. It has developed a particular way of fattening beef by feeding them with hay. Hay was essential because of the shortage of pasture. The finest hay is fed to the cattle who are traditionally sold at Easter. A whole accreditation system has grown up around the practice.
Mezenc Fin du gras sounds elegant and sophisticated when said in French. Translated into English Mezenc Fat End is neither inspiring nor appetizing. It’s one of the examples of how a word for word translation can ruin the grace of the original.
Metalier in France – we’re looking forward to setting up there -well we sort of have a French name, don’t we? Metalier is a contrived word of our own derived from marrying Metal with the French word “Atelier” which translates as a workshop or studio, especially one used by an artists or designer. Metalier metals are an art-form and our team are artists and creators.
Contact us to find out when Metalier in France becomes a reality or if you think you would like to bring our metal system to that country. Or complete the form below.
General Contact Form
Metalier UK Hub | Birmingham
The Metalier UK Hub is in Birmingham
The Metalier UK hub was the next stop on the international tour. Actually it’s also about to be the Metalier UK/Europe Hub too.
Birmingham sometimes gets a bad press but it’s actually very cultured with its orchestra, ballet, repertory theatre, library and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. They all have international reputations. And there are also great grass roots art, music, literary and culinary scenes.
Amazingly, Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors.
London, of course, is first by a long shot then Edinburgh (not unexpected), Manchester and Birmingham.
Just a quick train ride from London Euston, Birmingham is ideally located in the British West Midlands for the Metalier UK Hub. It’s also got a great compact international airport so is convenient for the likes of visitors from HQ and also from Europe. And sorry, but anything to avoid Heathrow if possible.
Not only all of this, but there are family members and friends there too. It’s just perfect!
Birmingham architecture is interesting too.
It’s a young city by European standards, having grown out of the Industrial Revolution. With the building of Selfridges in the Bullring Shopping Centre, it was one of the first cities to exhibit the blobitecture style.
What’s that, you might ask? Well “Blobitecture from blob architecture, blobism or blobismus are terms for a movement in architecture in which buildings have an organic, amoeba-shaped, building form.” The design for the 2003 Selfridges Building department store, was intended to “evoke the female silhouette and a famous ‘chainmail’ dress designed by Paco Rabanne in the 1960s.
I expect it is only coincidence that my favourite perfume for years, now sadly unavailable, was Paco Rabanne’s Metal.
Birmingham has heaps going for it, not just the Metalier UK Hub at Granlyn, although that’s right up there. Go to something artistic, eat something exciting and marvel at blobitecture. And if you want to contact Metalier UK their details are here – or you could fill in the form below.
General Contact Form
Architecture | Dubai to Welsh Castles
Welsh Castles are far away from Dubai!
From Dubai to North Wales, Conwy in fact, was the next stop on our 2015 jaunt to say close to one of the most spectacular of the Welsh Castles. It sure is an architectural shift.
Castell Conwy (Conway Castle in English) was built in the 13th century by Edward I. It was constructed as part of a larger project to create a walled town in Conwy. It and the defences of Conwy cost the gigantic sum of 15,000 pounds.
UNESCO considers Conwy to be one of “the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe” and it is classed as a World Heritage site.
It is also fascinating that it is one of the earliest stone machicolations in Britain. Machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement. Through these openings the castle inmates could adopt the charming practice of dropping stones and other objects onto attackers. Machicolation were more common in French castles than English ones – remember the French soldiers in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Architecture in Wales is not only about Welsh Castles
The Visit Wales site points out that there are many contemporary buildings adding “a sleek, stylish, eco-efficient edge” to parks, cities and heritage attractions. Buildings it singles out for mention include the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Caerphilli Castle Visitor Centre, Galeri Caernarfon, Hafod Eryri-Snowden Summit Building, the Millenium Stadium and Senedd, the National Assembly for Wales. It’s just as well that the reception area in this building is not the main chamber. Its ceiling and tree-like funnel would have most MPs gazing heavenwards most of the time, I’m sure.
One thing which we find disconcerting about travelling by car in Wales is that as you get further and further into the country the road signs feature Welsh on the top with English underneath. Welsh seems to take a lot more and longer words to say things than English. But there is no way I can train my eyes to start reading the sign from the middle. I’m sure there’s a word for this.
And there are in spring or autumn 47 different shades of green to be seen in the vegetation of the Conwy valley. When you’re sick of exploring Welsh castles you can drink in the green of the valley.
Even when we’re travelling there are plenty of people working hard at Metalier while we’re not there. So contact them or complete the form below to chat about metal or anything else on your mind.