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Part 4 of the Sheet Metal Series Walk down any street of late 19th or early 20th century housing in Belgium, France, or the Netherlands, and look up. The grey-blue metal at the roofline — the gutters, the dormer window surrounds, the decorative crests and finials, the capped cornices — is almost always zinc. Zinc

Part 3 of the Sheet Metal Series Every sheet metal on a historic building weathers. Zinc dulls and develops a grey patina. Lead darkens to a soft blue-grey. Tin loses its sheen and, if the coating fails, rusts. Copper does something different. It transforms. Fresh copper is a warm, bright orange-red — the colour of

Nacido en Arucas, Gran Canaria, aprendió el oficio en 1994 junto a los labrantes de la propia cantera. En 1996 montó su primer taller, y hoy ostenta el título de Maestro y Monitor Artesano, otorgado por el Gobierno de Canarias. Desde escudos y bancos canarios hasta la restauración de viviendas centenarias. En 2022 fue incluido

Part 2 of the Sheet Metal Series Of all the sheet metals used in historic building construction, lead has the longest history and, in many respects, the most impressive performance record. The Romans used lead for pipes, gutters, and roof coverings across their empire. Many of those installations lasted centuries. Lead flashings on medieval churches

Introduction to the Sheet Metal Series There is a category of material on historic facades that does not get the attention it deserves. Not the decorative ironwork. Not the carved stone. Not the lime render or the glazed tile. The material that sits at the junctions — where roof meets wall, where water must be

Autodidacta desde los 14 años, con un viejo cortador y un libro sobre vidrieras medievales. A los 18 ya tenía su propio taller: Vitromar, en Estepona (1997). Hoy es Maestro Artesano reconocido por la provincia de Málaga. Domina el emplomado y la cinta de cobre, y es mundialmente conocido por una técnica única: retratos hiperrealistas

A blog about gietijzer, catalogues, lost ornaments, and why a foundry in Belgium might be the most important restoration resource you’ve never heard of. Let me start with a confession. In the two blog posts this series dedicated to wrought iron — the preparation, the coatings, the colour — I never once clearly distinguished between

Part 5 of 5: The Ceramic, Glass and Mosaic Series The previous four posts in this series have covered the history of ceramic on facades, the specifics of glazed brick, the challenges of mosaic panels, and the use of decorative glass as an architectural surface material. This final post addresses the practical question that all

Autodidacta, aprendió el oficio de su padre cantero a los 16 años. En 2003 fundó Artifex Balear, escuela-taller sin ánimo de lucro que forma aprendices en cantería y construcción tradicional desde entonces. Ha trabajado en patrimonio histórico como la Catedral de Palma, el Palacio de la Almudaina y varios ayuntamientos mallorquines, restaurando también esculturas públicas.

Part 4 of 5: The Ceramic, Glass and Mosaic Series When people think of glass on a historic facade, they think of windows. The glazed opening, the sash or casement frame, the relationship between solid wall and transparent void that gives a facade its rhythm and character. But glass has appeared on historic facades in