Designed and made in London, our contemporary sculptural desk ornaments; Core, Billet and Pour, pay homage to the old and timeless sand casting process dating back to the Shang Dynasty circa 1600 BC.
Core, Billet, and Pour are produced in cast iron or bronze and are a part of our newest venture, Makers Cabinet’s Editions, where we work with our local makers who are masters of their craft to create timeless, limited edition collections of objects.
We thought it was important to support our local craft industries when designing our Makers Cabinet Editions. We reached out to Steven Whitton from the Whitton Foundry in South London to embark on our latest project, he has specialised in sand casting for 53 years, starting at the age of 15. We knew Steven was the best person for the job, running his own Foundry for over 20 years, he’s created castings for some of London’s best attractions and clientele. He was especially proud of the ‘Peace and Love’ sculpture he made for Ringo Starr from The Beatles and chuckled as he told us about the bronze gates he had cast for Hyde Park, although he’s never visited.
Pictured - Steve Whitton from Whitton Castings
He welcomed us into his workshop and wasted no time getting started. We appreciated the tools he used, each step was made with such intuitive craftsmanship. We were in absolute awe of how skilfully he was able to take our CNC machined patterns we created from chemical wood to create the three moulds, ready for casting. It was moving, seeing something as volatile as molten metal, heated to over 1000°C, crystallise and become objects that will live on for generations.
After being separated from the moulds the castings are taken to our East London workshop, where our lead designer Odin, ground the edges to give them a clean brushed finish and machined the underside to fit reclaimed leather pads, and to feature our signature Makers Cabinet brandmark. Everything from post-machining, finishing and packaging will be done right from our studio in the heart of Bethnal Green.
Pictured - Odin, our Head Designer, in our workshop
Core, Billet and Pour are hand-crafted and made from natural materials, giving each one its own character. Our desk objects complement our range of brass stationery tools, a perfect place to seat your Ferrule, Iris, Stria or Høvel on your desk.
We’ll be running our Makers Cabinet Edition’s project for 2 weeks on Kickstarter. Although the sand casting process has existed for 1000 years and evolved over time, local industries are dying out, with only a few remaining foundries like Steven’s left in London alone. We hope this project and future Makers Cabinet Editions will bring back some much-deserved recognition to the craft. Follow the link to our Kickstarter to back us.
