Following on from the completion of the Young St project which saw internationally acclaimed fine jewellery designer, Shaun Leane call upon the skills of Cumbrian-born blacksmith Chris Brammall to create his vision for ‘Arbour’, a major bronze artwork across a 40m building façade in Kensington, a piece of the metalwork has now gone on permanent display at the London Victoria & Albert Museum.
This was Shaun’s first, ground-breaking foray in to the architecture and public arts realm and in recognition of this, a panel is now on display at the eastern end of the Ironwork Gallery of the London museum – Room 114E and it is in good company, near work by the American blacksmith, Albert Paley, a double screen designed by the jeweller, Wendy Ramshaw and next to lift grilles designed by Louis Sullivan for the Chicago Stock Exchange.
Leane, noted for his one-of-a-kind catwalk jewellery and longstanding relationship with Alexander McQueen, was commissioned to design the building’s exterior metalwork by FutureCity and Grainger plc and it has become the largest scale commission in the UK to be undertaken by a jewellery designer. Leane chose to work with British award-winning architectural and sculptural metalworkers, Chris Brammall Ltd for the fabrication and installation stage of the project – creating the 58 balcony railings and two gates to be situated across the façade of the residential development, designed by Assael Architecture.
Each balcony, railing and gate has been handmade and the leaves finished by the hands of artisans in Brammall’s Cumbrian workshop. The artwork is cast in Phosphor Bronze. Each of the balcony railings is unique, featuring hand-formed curves with the leaves cast and grated into steams, then patented and treated to give a rich bronze finish. Almost 3,000 linear metres of bronze sections are used to form the handrails. The leaves were cast at Brass Founders in Sheffield and all hand-finished at Chris’s workshop in Cumbria with the project taking over twelve months to complete.
For Chris and his team this final stage signifies a proud moment: “It’s not every day you get to say something you have worked on is actually sitting in the V&A. Shaun’s design was superb and we are thankful that he chose to work with us – it is testament to his vision that the panel is now on display for years to come.”
