Bay Area-based artist, designer, maker and entrepreneur Katie Gong has become well known for her bent wood sculptures. Now, thanks to a collaboration with designer Jessica Davis’ Atlanta-based Nest Studio, Gong is expressing herself in a different medium: A recently launched four-piece Knot hardware collection available in various metal finishes.
How did this collaboration come about? Katie Gong: Jess and I had created larger scale pieces for her Atlanta home and we played around with the idea of the same shapes but as hardware. We wanted to make pieces that were elegant but tough and capable of withstanding heavy use.
Why do the knots translate well into hardware? Jessica Davis: The knots themselves have a shape that fits well in the hand and Katie works in so many different scales that the smaller sizes really just made sense as knobs and pulls.
What does the design process look like? KG: I steam the wood for a few hours—depending on the diameter and piece I am making—and once they are at a high enough temperature, I pull them out of the steamer and bend them into shape. Once Jess had the wood prototypes, she then developed wax pattern molds and the casting process.
JD: Knots and bends are inherently challenging to produce in brass, so a multistep casting process was utilized. This old-world method complements Katie’s hand-bending of her sculptures and enables the brass to come alive with movement. Most hardware, including our own, is either very hard-lined or ornately decorative. I love that this has a decorative quality but in a much more natural, organic way.
