Rustic Pine Cone and Needle Wrought Iron Door Grille

One of our all time favorite builders, Ricky Parker, who does a lot of very well built homes around Henderson, TX., sent over a fabulous design duo - Jerri Spivey and Kristal McNew- for a very special project.

The design goal was to echo the rustic beauty of The Piney Woods of East Texas in the amazing detail of the metal work, while still allowing for a generous view of nature itself through the glass.

J and K Designs is made up of the design team, Jerri Spivey and Kristal McNew.  Together, they offer superb interior design services ranging from the blueprint stage through the final decor.


About a year before, we had built a gorgeous three tier pine cone and needle wrought iron chandelier, which happened to also be a fandelier for one of Ricky's clients;  Jerri and Kristal just so happened to have a similar idea for their current client's home.  This time, the pine cones and needles would serve in adorning two pairs of exterior doors.  We went back and forth on how much of the grille should be open to view the beautiful scenery around the home and finally settled on a design very similar to what the girls had pictured.

Every single piece of metal on the grilles is hand forged, every pine cone is put together from several layers of metal, and everything including the textures is hammered in right here at our Dallas shop, where Potter Art Metal has resided for almost a century.  Even the grille hinges are custom designed to fit the look we were going for.

I honestly don't think that the photos do these door grilles justice, and Jerri and Kristal seem to agree: "Photos just don't do them justice-they are beyond fabulous!  You are so talented, and it was a pleasure working with you on this project." (Thanks girls!  I loved working with you as well!)
As always with our work, you really have to experience the fine hand worked detail first hand.  We take our metalwork very seriously (smily face.)

written by: Izabela Wojcik

Gothic Style Chandeliers

Izabela Wojcik: Designer for
Potter Art Metal Studios in Dallas, Tx.

Just wanted to show off my latest beauties...
I always love designing metalwork and lighting, but the gryphon chandelier in the background is a bit different and extra cool; which, of course, is my thing!

I designed this chandelier for one of Candace Atkins' clients.  Candace is a realtor in Dallas, Texas, with a passion for helping her cients achieve the advantages of homeownership;  this includes such perks as helping decorate their new homes.

It is a reverse tier fixture.  Why you ask?  Well, first, reverse tier chandeliers are really neat and different, but most importantly they serve a very serious role... like in the home of this particular client, who wanted a rather long fixture to drop inside an oval stair case.

A traditional three tier chandelier would have been too heavy on the bottom, but with the tiers reversed, we end up with the two gryphons, situated inside the longer side of the oval, to be enjoyed on the perimeter of the middle ring of the second story's balcony railing, and the smaller tier below, so that the first floor gets a beautiful, yet not overwhelming view as well.

See something you can't live without?  Visit Potter Art Metal Studios and I'll be happy to help you choose the perfect chandelier or any other piece of metalwork you can think of for your home or business.  I have been designing metalwork for over 7 years, this includes chandeliers, fandeliers, railings, tabe bases, doors, gates, etc...  What can I say?  You just can't beat custom metalwork!

My thoughts on ART

I used to think... What are these galleries thinking? This stuff is crap! It's like the artist has to come up with some sappy story to sell this junk.
Then I realized... It's not always about the pretty thing on paper... sometimes the real art is what's inside the artist, being conveyed in the best way the artist can... so listen to what is beneath the piece of paper and you just might fall in love with what's on it.

Only the best, because I'm rich.

You see it in movies all the time: "Only the best for my...," says the handsome wealthy man. I smiled.
A long time ago I used to think that this and many other Hollywood ideas were true, and perhaps some of the time they really are, but after working as a high-end custom metalwork and lighting designer for the past seven years I have learned something to the contrary. Most of the time it's not the money which drives people to get the best, it's actually education. I have noticed that the clients who have traveled around the world and chose to learn about their surroundings and the people around them are much more likely to appreciate the fine things in life, even when they are much less wealthy. Interesting indeed.

Bad Metalwork

I was just taking a virtual tour of the best homes in Dallas. It still amazes me that a lot of HP (Highland Park) and UP (University Park) residents who live in extremely expensive homes (multi-million) have the cheapest looking stair railings and gas lanterns. I assuming this is because they just don't realize what they were being sold.   It drives me absolutely crazy every time I see this.

I decided to take a few snapshots of what I would never install in a multi-million dollar home.  Now, don't get me wrong, it's perfectly acceptable for a regular home like mine, but then again, I don't have an Aston Martin parked in my drive.  I hope you see my point.

We'll take it slow and start with metalwork... I'll save the lighting for another day.

Lets talk scrolls first.  None of the following have any business what so ever in a multi-million dollar home.  Why?

Bad shaping, bad forging. Sloppy, and the welds are very sloppy too.  See how any scroll coming out of a larger scroll looks as if it's just slapped onto the larger one?  That is a very big no-no.

This one is simply laser cut, and you'd think that they'd at least come up with a good design, but no.

Slightly better then the top two, but still, the forging is not so great, and the design is also lacking.  Looks cheap!

Almost not bad at all, except for all the really cheap standard components.  When you add it all up, it's a n undersized no-no for a large home.

Also, almost not so bad if it wasn't such a flat design with standard, off the shelf components.

And now for actual railings:

Looks fancy enough, doesn't it?  All that scrolly stuff and all that bling?  Well, at least they made the effort to make standard, not proportionately put together railing look a bit less standard.  Hurts my eyes nevertheless; it almost looks as if it was made of wire.

Again, standard components spliced together.

"Bird cages"... what can I say about "bird cages".  They used to be cool way back when they were hand forged and rare, but now they are so standard that it hurts me every time I see them.  To make matters worse, like most of the railings on this page, they are glued into the wood and after a while will start coming loose.

Again, "bird cages" and standard, pre-made scrolls.  Everything is purchased off the shelf and spliced together.  The endings are just terrible, and all of it is machine made.  (Standard = machine made and sold like hot cakes; everyone's got one!)

Bad forging and absolutely no rhyme or reason in the design-work (if you can call it that)

Same as above plus a bunch of standard components, it's probably a cheap rip-off of some old lovely French rail, but it's been so butchered that the design is lost in translation.

Terribly proportioned, just terrible forging, bad design.

Simply standard; almost an apartment railing.

Straight off the shelf.

Metalwork should flow, have a great design to it, be proportionately made, scrolls should flow out of each other instead of being "stuck" to each other, welds should be properly cleaned, the tips should be properly forged, the scrolls should be flowing like poetry.  All or most of this is missing in all of the above designs.  It's like a difference between getting faux stone or the real thing... you can just tell, no matter how good the impression of the real thing is.

Here are a few examples of well made, custom ironwork, worthy of a multi-million dollar home.  Beautiful, well made things don't have to be found only in expensive homes.  Lots of people live in smaller homes and have an appreciation for fine things.  See the difference?

See how the scrolls are beautifully forged and everything is well balanced?

Pine cone and needle railing... want to get creative? Sure, but make sure that the elements look great not only from far away, but up close as well.

Closeup of the organic wrought iron railing above.

If you own a large home, proportion your railing to it.

A small, exterior railing can look good too!

What's Good for me is Good for my Garden

a glass of juice and leftover pulp

I have to say that I'm falling in love with my juice maker, all over again!
Now that I started an organic garden in my backyard, it's become my little organic gardening helper.
Every time I juice some veggies:
kale
parsley
red beet
spinach
carrot
etc...
I end up with all this wonderful left over pulp, or fiber, which is still slightly saturated by the veggie juices.
Since fiber is so good for the body, you an use the leftovers in some really yummy recipes, but more often then not, I like to collect the leftovers, quickly soak them in water, and use the concoction on my raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, tomatos, herbs and even flowers.  The nutrient rich water soaks into the earth super quickly to provide the plants with a fast boost of organic nutrients and the left over fiber on top breaks down over time and creates a really rich soil; you can even work it into the ground if you wish for a quicker turnaround.
No store, not even the best ones, can compete with the flavor your garden provides.  Especially if you treat it well.

my blueberries: fresh from the blueberry bush

Aerial Acrobatics on So You Think You Can Dance!

I am soooo excited!  So You Think You Can Dance is back on TV and today was the 2nd night of picking through all the potential dancers.  I was so psyched to see aerial silks, aerial hoop (lyra), pole acrobatics, as well as the cyr wheel, which is like a giant circus hoop.  A 27 year old circus performer David Matz on the cyr wheel was just AMAZING!  I'm in LOVE!  I am sure that by tomorrow he'll be all over the internet and so I'll add a link to the video of his dance.

I have been taking classes at CirqueFit in Dallas (although lately I must admit that I have been bad and have not gone in a while... need to fix that,) and have even been in a theatre production of Kazoo-la-la on the aerial hammock, which was so much fun... and I have to say that if I were to ever get anywhere in the neighborhood of what that guy did, I would be the happiest chick on this planet.  WOW!  So impressed!