LOST ARTS
Michael Holigan: You know, every week we show you the most modern advancements in home construction and design. But today, we're going to visit a co-op of artists who take inspiration from the past to create architectural elements that you can't find anywhere else.
Gary deLarios: Lost Arts preservation is exactly what it says. It's a preservation of the old crafts, the old trades and the old ways of doing things, which are dying out in the world today.
MH: Lost Arts was formed when Gary deLarios and his brother, Pat, were commissioned to build this 34,000 square foot English Tudor mansion. When the owner wanted handforged hardware, elaborate woodwork and handcarved furniture for its interior Lost Arts made it.
GD: There are no people that do this type of work anymore. There are very few in the world. What we emphasize is the value of human work, the value of the human mind, the human hand, the eye and beauty. That looks good Walter.
Walter: Yeah.
GD: Okay, yeah, that's exactly it.
MH: A woodcarver, a blacksmith, a stained glass artist, a sculptor and their apprentices are among the skilled craftsmen who forge, blast and shape ordinary materials into beautiful objects, the way they would have been made long before the Industrial Revolution.
GD: Walter's actually making what will later be a bronze and he's carving these leaves out of wood. There's no way really to machine it or do it, other than to do it by eye. You can't even measure it a lot of times. You're just working by feel, by eye and by the balance of the piece. So, it's an old craft that's still living in Walter.
MH: Centuries ago the village blacksmith was a vital member of every community.
GD: The old blacksmith made all the tools for the masons, for the carpenters. They made the hardware for the doors. They made the latches. They made the filigree keys for the queen's treasury box.
MH: Today, Lost Arts serves a more contemporary clientele.
GD: Many of our clients are decorators, designers in this area and all over the country at this point. We also work with architects.
MH: Whether it's a new Victorian home built in the middle of a modern city or a fantasy figure for a medieval mansion, they commission Lost Arts to painstakingly create extraordinary architectural details, dramatic custom features like this lantern.
GD: We're making 36 of these and they're actually going on a residence. These lanterns, when they're completed, will weigh close to 100 pounds. They're all solid silica bronze and they're going to be gas lanterns as well. So, everything has to be all built in to the casting.
MH: Creating these lanterns will require an intricate series of steps and use techniques that date back to the ancient Greeks.
GD: The Lost Wax Process that we do the Greeks invented it over 2,000 years ago. And they were making finer goods now than actually can be made with machines. We're going back to the way they did it. But, obviously, we can't talk to them. So we actually have to go to the library; we have to get books; we have to research and then we just have to get out and try. Now here is a mold that we've already made for one of the side panels of the lantern and it's made out of rubber with a plywood outer casing. Inside of this cavity we're going to pour some hot wax.
MH: Later, wax replicas of every piece of the lantern will be taken to a foundry where they will be dipped up to 20 times in a ceramic slurry. These ceramic molds will hold the molten bronze for the finished pieces. While these lanterns have been designed for a multimillion-dollar mansion, Lost Arts prides itself on creating imaginative and affordable items for every budget.
GD: You don't have to be a millionaire to have a piece that's made by an artisan. And I think one of the things that people love to do, from my experience, is the people love to participate in the design. They can come in and they can draw. They can tell us what they want and then we actually create it for some special little spot in their house. For instance, we're making some bathroom accessories, tissue holders and towel rings for a residence just for two bathrooms, but they're very special pieces. Some are iron and some are brass, twisted brass. We're making some window latches for 15 windows in another house. They're handforged iron. So, it doesn't have to be a huge project. It can be a very small project and people can still benefit from it.
MH: And because Lost Arts crafts every piece with meticulous care people are sure to enjoy their beauty for generations to come.
GD: The things that we make we feel that they're going to be around at least for 100 years. They're going to be around after we're dead and when the people that own them now get rid of them, they're going to go on to their grandchildren or to someone else that will appreciate them because they're meant to last.
Episode 60 1997 - 98 Season
| Lost Arts | Air Infiltration | Garage Door Opener | People in the Mortgage Process |