A pair of century-old small zinc planters for sale at Ruby Lane. Made by Ukrainian immigrant Samuel Galkin in Providence, RI sometime around the first world war. If the patina in the photos is accurate, I’d say these look like cast zinc with fairly large amounts of lead and copper — a very different composition than the material we use today. Still, this gives a good idea of the longevity of zinc.
I spent a few minutes this afternoon leaning over the shoulder of our always busy CAD guy, Nathaniel (who actually does much more than just the CAD work on our designs) to take a look at some new stuff we’ve had our hands on recently. That’s another thing that took me just a few days to figure out… We seem to get our hands into EVERYTHING!
This is a rough concept sketch of a seating area in an outdoor courtyard. The zinc benches have integrated trays for growing wheatgrass in the armrests and the planters and table are built as modular components which can be stacked and arranged in a number of configurations.
Another week, another order of zinc planters complete and ready to ship. These rounded pots are slightly more expensive than the cube-shaped planters we’ve done before, but as accent pieces for a rooftop garden or a grand entrance, they’re well worth it. We’re gearing up for a major order of 135 zinc planters which will go to none other than Sasha Fierce herself… Beyoncé!
In other news, we’ve had so much success working with Jay and Connie Lowe on their own house that we’ve managed to convince them to work with us on designing new home decór accents. Nobody has a better eye in picking out antiques to repurpose than Jay, and Connie has such a beautiful finishing touch with a paintbrush that it seemed like a shame not to promote their talents. We’ve posted plenty of photos of their amazing house here and here, but if you can stand to see more… just look at these tables we worked on: Read the rest of this entry »
After being contacted last month by an architect who works extensively on midtown Manhattan roof terraces about building planter boxes (the current source overseas was unreliable, expensive, and basically unimaginative in design), we started working on construction of a few sample planters. These massive double wall zinc constructions are solid enough to last many lifetimes, and we think their beauty speaks for itself.
The two boxes pictured are 30″ x 30″ x 30″ in dimensions, large enough to fill with a small tree. I think that what we love most about the project is the chance to show off our expertise in patinas. Check out the detail shot below. With enough concentration and focus, you can make zinc start to look like exotic quartz or granite with all of its veins and texture.
We will also be developing several other standard size boxes, as well as spun rounded flowerpots in zinc with a similar finish.
