Custom Wire Bending in Chicago

Chicago is a great town in SO many ways & one of them is the network of Sources and Resources that exist here. One of those Sources is a company that is instrumental to the Display + Visual Merchandising Industry, a company that bends wire in very imaginative ways. Recently I was assigned to source out a company that can do wire-bending on a Production level, as well as assist to develop "sample(s)" or prototypes.

                                       Chicago Wire Design did not disappoint.

Worktable where all the "magic" occurs

Overview of Main Workroom with print of project in foreground

Bending a bracket that The Shop Foreman designed "on-the-fly"

Roberto has been working for many years at Chicago Wire and now runs the Company. He deals with all sorts of creative types- from designers to engineers.They can and do produce display racks, floral display armatures, lampshades, and a huge variety of wire bent items.

Chicago Wire Design
1750 N. Kimball Avenue
Chicago,IL.60647
773.342.4220

Steel & Wood : : WOOD + Steel

Often, "Studio Furniture" is produced in either Wood,
or in Steel. 

By Woodworkers...or Metalworkers.

Rarely do Makers have the ability or skill(s) to effectively combine both of these materials in one elegantly integrated design.
I believe that I have achieved this and wish to promote, that aspect of what I do.

Which led to the layout of these 2 postcard designs- not fully detailed- but effectively layed out to incorporate some of the image that I shot (and a few that David Ditzler shot for me!- Thanks DAVID!) 

Often, when designing a piece like this- it's best to consider the "Less-Is-More" philosophy. 

On the other hand, leaving out other examples of my being capable of integrating Wood & Steel in my Stair Railing Designs and in my Custom Lighting Design as well as other home furnishing would take away from knowing about the full-range of what I can offer to an Interior Designer, Architect or Home Owner.

So, having comped this card up- I feel that by showing my 2 new pieces (top and bottom of the card) and by inserting smaller shots of my Lighting and Furniture, I have been able to display the range of skills and services I can bring to the "table".

So, having comped this card up- I feel that by showing my 2 new pieces (top and bottom of the card) , I have been able to display the integration of different skills and services I can bring to the "table".

Designing an effective Mailer has to meet one main requirement : using a phrase that my friend Tom Job once coined...... "Cubicle Worthy"! 

That is, is the design and visual impact of the piece strong enough to not only be posted on the walls of a persons cubicle - but is that card also going to create a buzz, cause attention to be be drawn to it by various co-workers and colleagues stopping by the "intended target audiences" cubicle?

So, I ask you my lovely readers of this blog- which of these two different 5" by 7" postcard Mailers do you feel is "Cubicle Worthy" in their intended representation of my Wood and Steel abilities?

Polisher's in & around Chicago

Polishing Steel is a lost art.

Many, many moons ago- Chicago once had more Metal Fabrication business' than any other US city. (This statistic came from my former Abrasive Salesman, so he may have been slightly biased....)
Much of the Metal Fabricated was at one time polished - either prior to plating or as a stand alone final finish.
Metal Polishing is a skill, that sadly has been "lost", being replaced by other cheaper, faster means of making a piece looks attractive. (Unless you're Apple, and can hire forced, cheap Chinese labor to polish those iPad/iPhone cases for pennies!!)
In the course of Fine Furniture Design & Fabrication (which is what I do) it's often necessary to polish the metal. AND- certain metals like Stainless Steel are "begging" to be polished-
that's how they are engineered.

Finding Custom Polishers has been a challenge for me.
All of them either want to charge an "Arm-&-a-Leg" to do what they do....
or "only" do production runs of 100's of parts at at a time.. .
or - have simply moved, died off (not a good job for respiratory health, and all polishers seem to smoke as well ??) -
or gotten away w/ poor customer (Joe @ A & B Polishing??!) service/ bad Attitudes (Tony @ Millennium Polishing - you know what I'm talking about???!) for too long....and I refuse to support/ do business w/them.

Until-I-met-Henry!!

What-a-breath-of-fresh-air, this guy is.
Nice to do business with. Takes great pride in his work. Fairly priced. Delivers on Time.
No attitude. Hablemos Espanol. Excellent work. Knows Metal. Knows Polishing.
A True Professional (Polisher).

When I brought Henry the base to this Stainless and Live Edge Wood Table- he needed to rePolish the Stainless that had been carefully pre-polished by another Chicago Resource/gem- Tom @ Griffin Plating. No questions. He totally "got" what needed to be done. And- when I returned to pick up my parts- my jaw dropped.

Premier Metal Finishing
6115 W. Belmont Avenue
Chicago,Ill 60641
773.427.6650