Page 96 - Flathead Living Fall 2014
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A worker arranges detailed metal before it is heated at Acutech in Columbia Falls.
A patina is applied to blacken iron on custom lighting.
A custom-made chandelier.
94 FLATHEAD LIVING | FALL 2014
concept, and once that gets approval, the code from the rendering heads to one of the shop’s cutting machines, whether it’s the super-hot plasma cutter or the power- ful water jet.
Grommet’s crews could cut everything by hand, but that would mean inevitable imper- fections and a slower pace, along with a sig- nificant cost differential.
“The fixtures could cost a lot more if every component was handmade,” Grommet said. From there, the basic pieces undergo a
transformation at the hands of the black- smiths and the steel-rolling employees; each piece is usually rolled through an embossing machine to get a pattern going, but employ- ees usually add hammered accents by hand.
Other pieces, such as the large hooks connecting one tier to another on the main chandelier, are beaten into shape by the blacksmiths.
Applying the patina mixture of oil and wax is an art in itself, involving heating and reheating steel pieces in a 250-degree
