The Importance of Models and Mock-Ups

One of our recent projects we have been working on at Dorset Custom Furniture is to create a garden gate that will be the home of two bronze castings by the sculptor Walt Matia of Curlew Castings. We started by creating the below scale model of the doors out of recycled chestnut which, because of its durability in outdoor conditions, the final piece will be made from as well. The next step was to create a full sized mock-up. In order not to waste some large pieces of recycled chestnut we used TimberStrand 2x6's. After completing a full sized door and setting in one of the castings we photographed it and used Adobe Photoshop to complete the rest of the process. With Photoshop we cut, mirrored and distorted the image to get an idea of possible variations of the design. As you can see in the below photos changing one dimension can dramatically affect the feel of a piece. After trying many different variations and discussing them with Walt we decided to go with the narrower taller of the three below (in the middle). The final dimensions of each gate will be 30" x 80" making the whole garden gate 60" x 80" overall.