Hand-made Belgian Hardware Jewelry

Peter van Cronenburg started as a cabinet maker in 1983, and because of his frustration to not find the exact hardware he needed to finish his realisations,- most items on the market were to him too 19th Century, with a mechanical finish and artificial patina-, he developed new models to respond to esthetical and technical challenges.

Peter also started collecting historic pieces in order to reproduce them and searched for craftsmen who executed their work in a traditional way.

Over the years, van Croonenburg has envolved into a high-service company with its own foundry that delivers high-quality hand-made architectural hardware.

Peter explains : “ We are committed to the details that make the difference. This soul, this passion can be found in each one of the models of our collection. Our thousand of models go from 16th Century Venetian door handles to ‘Shaker’ knobs, from Louis XV latches to Art Deco door bells, but all have the same in common: they have been thoroughly evaluated in terms of significance, purity of shape, function and proportions.”

Prototypes developed for a client can remain proprietary, or can be integrated in Peter’s collection.

The main manufacturing processes are forging and casting (sand casting as well as ‘cire perdue’), depending on the design and function of the piece.

“Hardware is the jewelry of a house.” (Peter van Cronenburg)

“It is important to make a distinction between rooms of a house : rooms for reception, services and private spaces. The wince cellar door of a connoisseur deserves another handle than a pantry. You don’t enter a library in the same state of mind you do with a workshop.” (Peter van Cronenburg).

From door handles, cabinet fittings, doorbells, to coathangers,… Peter van Cronenburg delivers a unique and privileged service and gives the clients the level of customization they want.

A wide range of finish possibilities is provided.

“We want to obtain an authentic look and feel, no varnishes are used, because the hardware does not age natural, using varnish.”, explains Peter.

Peter van Cronenburg is featured in a lot of publications as in international magazines and in interior design books. See more about the publications at the Peter van Cronenburg website HERE.

Beta-Plus Compendium Architectural Antiques

This is a picture at the showroom of Peter van Cronenburg.

Does this post teases your curiosity?! Please enter the website

by clicking on this logo.

As being an interior designer or architect, it is most interesting to ask for your password, to browse through the online catalogue.

Peter van Cronenburg

Moeistraat 53

Sint-Martens-Latem

Belgium

www.petervancronenburg.be

What are your thoughts about this Belgian artist? I would love to hear!

xx

All images : Peter van Cronenburg website; Peter van Cronenburg catalogue; scanned from the Beta-Plus book Compendium Architectural Antiques.

Text : website Peter van Cronenburg

Artist Blacksmiths – The Artisanal Forge Dujardyn Artconcept from Belgium

 

The art of the Artist Blacksmith is based on the ancient principles of hot forging iron and steel, working with a fire, a hammer and an anvil. Forging provides a means of shaping and joining metal that invests it with a special quality and character, far removed from the mechanical qualities of cut and weld fabrication. But blacksmiths today do more than simply hammering. It is part of their business to visit clients, survey sites, discuss design ideas, provide individual design proposals and make drawings, in addition to making, finishing and installing the work. New methods like computer aided design, sophisticated welding and cutting systems, and power hammers have added to the capabilities of modern blacksmiths, but not compromised the hand skills that lie at the heart of the craft.

OK! But where to find these skilled artist blacksmiths, working in the traditional style???

Today I want you to meet the brothers Steven and Brecht Dujardyn of the company DUJARDYN ARTCONCEPT, based in Oostrozebeke, Belgium.

These people are real artisans!! They continue the work of their blacksmith ancestors, the smiths of the village Oostrozebeke, West-Flanders, already evoked since the 17th century.

 

Steven (left) and Brecht at work.

 

The smithcraft was already structured since the 12th-13th century. The crafts were professional organisations that guaranteed the perfect quality of their fellow’s handiworks. There was the organisation of the copper-smiths, brass-founders, iron and tin artisans, lock-smiths, bell and gun founders and even goldsmiths.

 

The industrial revolution of 1750 saw to it that most of the rural smiths “modernized” and that new agricultural tools in metal, such as the ploughshares, were manufactured. The horses were still shod of course, but the wheels of the farmer’s carts possessed henceforth their iron fitting too.

 

Brecht in the ‘heat’ of the fight!

 

From the 2nd half of the 18th century on was noble ironwork essentially considered as being purely constructive and functional.

During the last decades, the number of smiths was strongly decreased since the potential market in the constructive and the functional (we might say utilitarian) has also decreased because of the disappearance of more and more farmers. So suddenly we resorted again to the aesthetic, artistic and decorative function of ironwork.

 

Steven at work.

 

One of the frustrations of the brothers consists in the fact that they realize that actually, professional secrets died with entire generations of smiths. They assure that they have to ‘reinvent’ many things. Not any master-smith of the Middle Ages of Late Middle Ages has ever written a “Manual of Ironwork”, or this one would have been lost over the centuries. The craft was transmitted from the ancient to the young, while forging.

Both, Steven and Brecht aren’t afraid of picking up inspiration by the last ancient smiths. Each little bit of transmitted science is for them a welcome piece of the puzzle.

“We are a little autodidacts”, they say, “and the one practising a craft of art like us, keeps on learning his entire life”.

 

The brothers working on a railing.

 

After Steven and Brecht had attented all possible trainings in Belgium, each in his scope, they had a few years ago the unique fortune to improve their knowledge at the prestigious ECOLE INTERNATIONALE DE LA FERRONNERIE FRANCAISE in Muizon, near Reims. A unique opportunity for our two Flemings, to know that the “school” only admits ten pupils a year, among which two strangers! Brecht could attend there the practical course and Steven the theory.

 

The work of blacksmiths covers an extraordinary range, both in scale and application. Blacksmiths today are making gates, railings and staircases; sculpture for city centres, private homes and gardens; chairs and tables, doorknockers, light fittings and hinges; bowls, bottle openers; jewellery etc.

 

Isn’t this staircase that Steven and Brecht made just gorgeous?!

 

 

A canopy.

 

A balcony.

 

 

Detail of a gate.

 

Starting from a drawing.

 

Gate with fence.

 

Detail of the gate.

 

 

An ‘Art Nouveau’ styled staircase.

 

Wine cellar door.

 

A beautiful front door.

 

Base of a coffee table.

 

A decorative garden ornament.

 

Fire place equipment.

 

An escutcheon. 

 

A trade-sign.

 

 

A most wonderful detail!

 

Wine cellar sconce.

 

A chandelier with Swarovski crystal.

 

Steven and Brecht show us on their website also a lot of beautiful hardware as doorknobs, hinges, locks and keys,…

 

I might think that so far, you will have a good idea of what our artisans are capable to! Isn’t it stunning!

In 2006, Steven and Brecht attended the ‘6ième Symposium de la forge Européenne’ in France. They were given lessons by blacksmiths of different nationalities. And they were asked to make a window bar in the tradition of the 16th century.

The Dujardyn brothers are also member of the BABA ( British Artist Blacksmiths Association), an organisation that aims to share the knowledge, experience and fellowship that is neccesary to maintain and forward the decorative art of the blacksmith.

 

Congratulations to you, Steven and Brecht! We are proud of having such an artisans amongst us, Belgians!

Keep on practising this wonderful art!

If you want to know more about Dujardyn Artconcept, please visit their website www.dujardyn.com. Don’t hesitate to contact Steven and Brecht, they will be pleased to help you with your project.

Dujardyn Artconcept

O.L. Vrouwstraat 3

8780 Oostrozebeke

Belgium

Tel . 0032 (0) 56 66 23 61

www.dujardyn.com

I wish you a wonderful week!

xx

Images and text source : the Dujardyn Artconcept website & the Baba website

Belgian Artist Luc Vervoort

Today I want you to meet one of my favorite Belgian contemporary artists, Luc Vervoort.

The works of Luc Vervoort establish a link between photography and painting. The paintings are actually pictures that fade out when putting them to the canvas.

His earlier works, the models, are based on excerpts of existing fashion photography.

From his professional background in internet business, Vervoort is now painting his impressions on how technology, and in particular the internet, is impacting society. Examples are the works ‘People On The Move’ and ‘Fashion Wars’.

The artists that inspire Vervoort are Popart like Lichtenstein, Warholl and more contemporary Belgian artists like Luc Tuymans, Michael Borremans and Bruno Vekemans.

The large size canvas paintings are made in acryl wall paint, using colors that naturally blend well in loft-style places and relaxed chique interiors.

Luc Vervoort is born in 1964, living in ‘s Gravenwezel, near Antwerp, in Belgium.

 

2008   Zebra fashion girl  Acryl on canvas 140 x 100 

 

  2008   Linda Evangelista with tie  Acryl on canvas 160 x 100

 

2008   Naomi Campbell with dalmatiens in car  Acryl on canvas 140 x 100

 

2008   Linda Evangelista  Acryl on canvas 140 x 100

 

2005   Monica Belucci  Acryl on 3-D canvas 120 x 120

 

2004   Claudia Schiffer  Acryl on 3-D canvas 140 x 100

 

2010   Fashion Wars  Acryl on 3-D canvas 160 x 100

 

2010   People On The Move  Acryl on 3-D canvas 160 x 100

 

The pictures on below confirm that these beautiful works of art blend well into your interior!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you love these paintings as much as I do!

What are your thoughts about our Belgian artist? I would be pleased to hear that from you!

 

For more information about the artist, please visit his Saatchi Gallery website HERE.

If you are interested in one of the paintings or if you want to know more about the artist, contact Luc Vervoort here  :  lvervoort@mac.com

 

xx

 

Text and photo images : by approval of Luc Vervoort