I designed and built this sculpted staircase railing in a newly constructed house near Palmer, Alaska. It’s made of cherry and black walnut with glass panels. Strips of cherry are bent on the outside of the glass panels like tree branches. The joints are all sculpted and hand shaped as are the hinges for the gates between the two newel posts.
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An overall view of the bottom of the staircase. The rails, main posts, volutes, frame for the gates and bent strips in front of the glass are cherry. The sub-posts and frames for the glass as well as the gate panels and turned hinge pins are walnut.
A straight on view of the bottom of the railing. Two gates hang between the newel posts on hand shaped hinges.
A detail of one of the newel posts, volute and the hinge with walnut pin. The newel post volutes are made of a series of compound mitres to form the loop. Then shaped to a smooth curve and sculpted into the post.
A progression of one of the post-to-rail joints as it went through the shaping process.
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That's some awesome work, real organic looking! WOW!