This “Casa Verde” sign was a custom made  for a cottage-style home in Austin, TX.

A few additional ADDY awards, requested by the 2013 recipients

Fellow Etsyians over at Dust 2 Den were searching for a versatile sign for use both on the road

and in their shop. We designed this fold up stand as a portable solution.

Who would have thought these simple AL coat hooks would be one of our most popular items carried by The Switch House ?

Typography orders are still rolling in.. this “&” is one of our most recent favorites

Our Summer schedule is quickly filling up!

In addition to custom orders, we’ll be juggling an abundance of family vacations, weekend barbecues, and frequent trips to the river.

Carpe Diem, every day.

April was filled with a surge of custom orders and farm endeavors.

The extended hours of daylight have encouraged outdoor projects,

despite the cooler than usual weather we’ve been experiencing.

 Low maintenance perennials in the form of metal yard art

(available at The Switch House + Trinity Farm Supply)

Several afternoons spent plowing the garden plot of vegetables + natural dye plants

 {more} arrows

We made another trip up the Mountain to visit our friends and

 install a swivel garden sign in memory of Bill Nance, just in time for Earth Day.

This plot of tilled soil has officially become known as the test field.

… “test field” as in we’ve been “testing” a few inventions lately. (more on that later)

A “box” style sign, as seen above, created for the folks over at HEARby.

This two piece design allows ease of installation, and for mounting hardware to be hidden from view.

A family coat hook collaboration with Peg Berens for a client’s California mudroom

Throw in some yard maintenance, plumbing upgrades, alpaca care,

and a minor electrical fire in the shop, and that about wraps up our month.

No two days are ever the same; I don’t think we could handle it any other way.

]]> http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/april-snapshots/feed/ 0 http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/doo-nanny-2013/ http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/doo-nanny-2013/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:39:22 +0000 dropmetal http://blog.dropmetal.com/?p=965 A fantabulous weekend filled with art, music, and spontaneous collaborations of all sorts.

These photos offer a mere glimpse of the 15th annual Doo-Nanny,

though I must admit there was so much more to be seen that didn’t get captured.

Sometimes it’s nice to remove the lens and experience everything first hand. . .

knowing that full immersion in these fleeting moments is what life is all about.

]]> http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/doo-nanny-2013/feed/ 0 http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/element-26-signage/ http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/element-26-signage/#comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:17:50 +0000 dropmetal http://blog.dropmetal.com/?p=954 This month, we’ve been doing the usual jugging act

of metal collaborations, alpaca care, and farm work.

Much of our attention has been focused on creating custom signage for Element 26 Apartments,

as we transformed our  client’s vision into a reality.

We made two of these huge entry signs. Although they are created in exactly the same manner,

the outcome is a bit different, thanks mainly in part to Mother Nature’s hand in the rusting of each unpainted piece.

We also made a few address plates with a new and improved design.

This address sign is made of two rectangular pieces with channels, that fit together like a box.

Once the first piece is attached to the wall, the additional part can be screwed together via holes in the sides.

No unnecessary hardware to see here.

Congrats to all the recipients!

Many thanks to Houzz.com for featuring this Ideabook

which just so happens to include our metal arrows!

A personal thank you to  Mrs. Rhoda over at Southern Hospitality

who featured our work at the top of her curated list.

We’ve had an overwhelming response since the arrows were featured….

So we decided to point our sights toward creating an entire line of unique  metal arrows.

Here’s a style sheet that will provide a rough blueprint of the shapes we’ll be cutting.

Which one is your favorite, and what color would you paint it?

Let us know what you think, we know you have an opinion, and it definitely matters.

“State Pride.” by cornflowerpress

“recycle” by Sarah Cote“Alien” by Scandiandersen

]]> http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/etsy-treasures/feed/ 0 http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/rocket-stove-1-0/ http://blog.dropmetal.com/2013/rocket-stove-1-0/#comments Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:00:40 +0000 dropmetal http://blog.dropmetal.com/?p=885 Working with metal has its advantages when it comes to side project tinkering.

The most recent occurrence arose from the desire to build an outdoor cook stove to improve upon the current outdoor dye space.

Our current space was built from cinder blocks and damaged fence posts.

It has a large surface area for multiple pots, but requires quite a bit of wood to keep the dye vats at 180 degrees.

The first time we fired it up, it blew smoke under the (poorly sealed) front door.

Thus began a conquest to design a better solution.

(http://www.theresilientfamily.com/2012/04/rocket-stove/)

After several hours of research, a design was sketched and overall based off of the Rocket Stove shown in the diagram above.

The main pieces were comprised of a metal 30 gallon barrel and some scrap 16 gauge sheet metal.

Tacked together sheet metal: this piece will serve as the entry portal / burn chamber.

Cutting a hole in the barrel to allow for the entry portal.

Burn chamber complete with square tubing chimney; nestled inside the 30 gal barrel

Impromptu stand

Test fire

After the initial fire, a few improvements were made.

The chimney was widened to allow a more even heating surface for dye pots + rebar for pots to rest.

A “scoop” like device was created so that small fires could be started on its surface, then carefully transported to the burn chamber.

We look forward to conducting a few more trial runs if this rain will ever let up….

if all goes as planned we’ll fill the barrel with sand and get to dyeing.

* * * *

A few links regarding DIY Rocket Stove designs we found quite interesting:

Milkwood.net – Rocket Stove Roundup

DIY Rocket Stove: Six Plans – Jeff McIntire-Strasburg

DIY Rocket Stove- Kent Ivey