Garden Arches and Rose Arbours - China vs Australia

In the previous post I mentioned 'The Wedding', the one major event which was taking up every waking hour, not only with typical wedding preparations but also the mad haste to "fix and clean up" the property for the pending celebrations. Now, Murphy's Law or should I say curse, has a way of embracing this property at the most inopportune times.  One such event was when the rose arch that my prized Pierre de Ronsard was trained against had finally given up the ghost.  Our 'cheap and cheerful' China-made arch which I brought up here 7 years ago from the city, being typically made from cheap thin walled tubing, finally rusted through ... completely.  I was devastated to find my beloved Pierre on the ground. 

Despite making and selling garden arches I've been without one myself for quite some time, so here was the prime opportunity to get a sturdy, strong and more appropriate garden arch made up. The climbing rose was positioned right where the tea and coffee was to be served after 'The Ceremony', so no excuses, making a rose arbor was one job that was not going to be filed into the invisible list of 'to do's' which Andrew kept in his head. This was a project that needed to be done and finished. Unfortunately we didn't have time to powder coat it, but it did get a lick of black paint with some gold rubbed over the flower motifs. 

It's a prime example of wrought iron made to fit.  One side of the garden arch fits the purpose of supporting my Pierre de Ronsard and the other side, with its decorative wrought iron work is ornamental with beautiful scrolls and hot stamped steel flowers. Being narrower in depth it doesn't block the path either.  This is one arch which is not going to rust away and should last a couple of decades at least.

Wrought iron pool fence

It's amazing how much gets done when the pressure's on!  The night before Andrew went in for a hip replacement our daughter announced that she wanted to get married, the bombshell dropped when we found out she was giving us only 9 months notice - they wanted an autumn wedding.  Miss Independent was only 19, so our reaction after the initial shock, was "how the heck are we paying for this?", followed by "Oh, you want it here at home ... looks like we're going to have to do a major tidy up". Now, we live on 75 acres, work from the property and have been here 6 years. The property was run down to start with and there was still alot to fix up.  But most importantly the swimming pool didn't have a child proof pool fence - or more practically from our personal perspective a barrier to stop the wildlife and curious calves testing the solar pool blanket - but that's another story. 

I've never particularly liked standard tube pool fencing, and I figured that it was my turn to have Andrew make me something really lovely from wrought iron.  I'm glad my man likes a challenge, he on the other hand was far more practical ... "you want it, you give me a drawing and I'll make it".  The challenge was on!  After a couple of knockbacks from the 'welder extraordinaire', along the line of "that won't work", or "have you any idea how much that's going to cost?", a compromise was reached. [Sidenote: it's not only our customers that have to work with mercenary husbands]. 

 The pool fence is made, each panel from solid steel and wrought iron so it's quite heavy, and it came up beautifully.  It would have been nice to have had more wrought iron in the design, but unfortunately South Australian swimming pool regulations are such that there must be a minimum 1.2m clearance from top to bottom between where a child can get a foot hold.  I think the gold caps, which incidentally started out as a joke really set it off.

On a final note, I really enjoy watching Andrew beam with pride when people admire his wrought iron pool fence.

Cast Iron McKay Sunshine Gates and Simpson Gates ... the modern alternative

The old Sunshine heritage gates of the turn of the century are fetching very high prices at clearing sales and auctions. It's amazing to see some appear on Ebay in really bad shape, only to go for ridiculous prices. Could this be due to the fact that they're becoming harder to find? I recall seeing a pair of 2.4m (8' in the old imperial measurement) gates going for in excess of $2500, some being irreparable and others needing some serious restoration work. These prices were for gates that were pick up only, which would have restricted the interest and lowered prices.

Many of the original old gates typically require a significant amount of restoration to fix badly bent and rusted out bars. I'm not sure what makes these gates so appealing, they were extremely heavy old things, made from solid steel bars and joined with cast iron joints. I suppose the castings on some of the fancier ones were quite pretty but the ones with a steel frame and twisted wire (instead of bars) may not have been the safest of gates around stock.

Left: Farmweld's New Cast Jointed Gate

We've had many enquiries about cast jointed gates over the years and have finally succumbed to the pressure!  A Victorian insurance company approached us recently to make up a set for a customer of theirs and we agreed to take on the job. The castings cost an absolute fortune, so they're not a cheap gate to replicate, however what we came up with looks just like the original.

The gate differs in that we've used modern techniques. The cast joints are from iron, and the bars are steel pipe, so not quite as heavy as the originals. Don't get me wrong, the gates are still very heavy. The only down side is that the castings, like the originals are cast and limited to specific sized gates.  We'll be adding these to our range of gates, and will soon advise as to what sizes will be available.

 

Contemporary Farm Gate

Farmers and property owners are no longer happy to limit themselves to plain old mesh farm gates and are joining their city counterparts in looking for new and innovative designs to grace the entrances of their homes.

We had one such customer contact us for a brochure and in doing the usual follow up I happened to get hold of his wife instead. She had very specific ideas about what she wanted, but no one around made anything like it. The gates in our brochure were not what she had in mind. Not to leave it there, I informed her that we custom make gates to customers designs so if she could give me a photo, drawing or even a 'doodle' (as had another customer of ours a while back), we could put together some concept sketches and a quote.  She was rapt.  A picture was faxed through and after some modifications to make it fit, their dairy is soon to take delivery of this gate:

There are five solid cast steel balls set into the intersections which really set the design off. The gate is going to NSW and ironically the Pura Milk company which is local to South Australia uses this colour in all its branding.

Custom wrought iron design, coffee table legs

A while ago I posted a photo of a custom  designed wrought iron door panel which we made for a lovely customer who was building a house at Nairne, SA. This customer was so happy with what we created for her, she asked if we could possibly design something to support a table top that she and her husband had, and wanted to make into a coffee table. Here's what we came up with:

The design brief was that it should not only structurally support a very thick and heavy slab of timber which I believe is about 6cm thick, but that it should also complement the piece of timber. I think the design of the legs will work quite well with the heavy look of the table top. Another one I can't wait to see finished.

I have suggested that a matching chandelier might be worth looking at ... nothing like value adding.

Edwardian and Art Deco Gates - the gap in heritage style gates

So many homes that are being renovated in metropolitan areas in Australia are from the Edwardian and Art Deco periods. Many of these homes have been lost to developers who saw the simplicity of the design from this period as being 'boring' and not worth renovating.  Consequently the gates and fences available on the market tend to cater for the Victorian architectural periods as they were more decorative.  In an effort to fill this gap we 'finally' got around to making a prototype of a garden gate which would fit this period. It's simple lines, curved top and symetrical scrollwork all work with the Art Deco and Edwardian styles. We've used a bit of artistic licence with the addition of the wrought iron baskets, but I think it works. We're also going to make a larger entrance gate version but I couldnt wait to post a photo of this unpainted gate:

 

It lends itself to being made into a taller gate as well, so many possibilities! It also reminds me of some of the Edna Walling gates I've seen in books and in her early blueprints. I'm tempted to call it the 'Agatha' as I was inspired whilst watching a murder mystery on the ABC one night.

I'd love to hear your comments.

NEW - heritage style country gate design ... the Estate Gate & Chicken Coop Gate

We're pleased to announce the latest design in our gate range, the 'Estate' gate. We've had a number of customers with wider entrance ways who have liked the simplicity of the Railway gate, but also loved the older flat bar heritage style of the Eleanor - which unfortunately is not as stable in longer lengths. The double gates below have been sandblasted so that they will rust up evenly, as the customer wanted a set of old looking gates.

We've created a country gate with a stronger RHS frame, flat horizontal bars and a softly curved handle at either end. The diagonal supports are decorated with a ring in the centre. In future Eleanor gates over 12' or 3.6m will also be made with an RHS frame to give the gate more support and rigidity. Pricing of the new Estate gate will be the same as the Eleanor.

A few days ago I mentioned a chicken coop gate that we were making. Our customer wanted something a little 'different' and whimsical in design. Here's a photo of the gate ready to go to it's new home:

These are going to be very lucky chickens!