How the work is made
Capabilities
A commission runs the same way every time: brief and design, then engineering and approvals, then the making — cast, fabricated or carved, depending on the material — then finishing, crating and installation. These are the stages, what happens in each one, and what you receive at the end of it.
The disciplines a commission runs through
Listed in the order they happen. Casting, fabrication and carving sit at the same point in the sequence — they are alternatives, and the material chooses between them.
3D Design
Concept development, digital sculpting and verified visualisation.
Structural Engineering
Signed calculations, wind analysis and anchoring design for every piece.
Bronze Casting
Lost-wax and sand casting in silicon bronze, welded and chased by hand.
Metal Fabrication
Laser cutting, forming and welding in stainless, corten and aluminium.
Stone Carving
Hand carving in Carrara and selected marbles — no resin, no reconstituted stone.
Finishing
Polishing, patination, powder coating and gelcoat spraying to sample.
Crating and Freight
Export crating, documentation and freight to the delivery port.
Installation
Direct installation, or supervised local rigging where we do not travel.
How a commission runs, in order
Design and engineering overlap on most commissions; nothing downstream of them does. Trial assembly applies to work that ships in sections.
- Brief and design. Sight lines, viewing distance, setting and programme settled first, then concept directions, a maquette and a production model you have approved.
- Engineering and approvals. The wind case for the actual position, the internal frame, the anchoring and the base loading plan — issued signed, early enough for whoever approves the design locally to check it.
- Making the piece. One route, not three. The material settled at design stage decides whether the piece is cast, fabricated or carved. One of:
- Bronze Casting
- Metal Fabrication
- Stone Carving
- Finishing and inspection. Patina, polish or coating applied against a sample panel you signed off, then measured back against that panel before it is accepted.
- Trial assembly — sectional work only. Sectional work is built complete, match-marked and photographed before it is taken apart again. Alignment problems are found here rather than under a crane.
- Crating and freight. Cradles and bracing designed for the specific piece and route, export documentation issued ahead of sailing, and the shipment tracked to arrival.
- Installation and handover. Access requirements, lifting plan, setting and alignment, on-site finishing where the piece was sectioned, then the torque records, photographs and maintenance schedule.
Want to check we can actually make it?
Send the drawing or the reference. You will get an engineer and a fabricator on the same call, and a straight answer about what is and is not possible at that scale.
We respond to every quote request within one working day