Solder Seat
2015
0.8mm Zinc sheet and lead-free solder
Last year I had to repair the roof of our studio and home. Terry and Nicky Fisher, a father and son team, replaced the perished lead on the gable ends, masterfully dressing the sheets of lead over the ribbed profile of the roof tiles and cutting, bending and stitching the lead into the brickwork before soldering the seams together with a gas soldering iron, all the while perched atop a 45ยบ inclined roof. The process was a joy to watch and introduced me to the skilful craftsmanship of architectural sheet metalwork. The technique inspired my design for the Zinc Bar at Ace Hotel, Shoreditch, which was made by Nicky and Terry in my workshop with me as their new apprentice, and subsequently my Solder Seat, which remains an evolving experiment into folding, cutting, splicing and soldering thin sheets of zinc, copper and brass.