Grain Barrel

Meet The Grain Family

What was meant as a warning from our fabricator in L.A. – that occasionally a trace of wood grain from the tool used in metal spinning could be seen in finished parts – became the focal point of our Grain Family. We invented a process to celebrate this tooling mark. Working with a pattern maker, we create custom molds from maple boards, and sandblast them to raise the wood grain. They're then spun on a lathe at the same speed as a flat sheet of aluminum, which forms around the mold to create a metal shade. After each run of 25 parts the mold is sandblasted again, exposing fresh grain and slowly eroding the wood tool.