It all started with The Handmade House, divine developer Carol Isaak Barden’s latest entry into the luxury oeuvre, under construction at 1916 Banks Street. Designer Richard Holley is working with her on this project, as is the award-winning, Seattle-based architect firm Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen. Here’s the premise: Barden and Holley select artisans and craftsmen who bring to The Handmade House “the impeccable craft of hand-finishing and almost-forgotten metal and woodworking techniques,” Barden says. One of the most well-known is Charles Masterson, from generations of Masterson artists — his mother is Mariquita Masterson, his sister is Libbie Masterson, and his father Stewart was an artist later in life, as were his grandparents and their parents. “It’s a big deal in our family to make art — no one gets a pass,” says Charles, who began his craft in 1978 with large-scale metal sculpture, custom metal furniture for Richard Holley and metal-wrought arches and staircases for clients such as Bill Neuhaus. After a 10-year hiatus, Masterson is back full steam with his metal artistry. For The Handmade House, he has fashioned a hand-rolled spiral sconce and a sconce shaped like folding boxes with channels of light — the prototypes shown here are in steel but will be completed in bronze.
Charles Masterson, Masterson Artworks, 713.398.8613; cmasterson3@comcast.net.
Images:
Above: Richard Holley and Charles Masterson. Photo by Jenny Antill.
Below: Spiral sconce by Charles Masterson for The Handmade House