STOPP
Doorstop

Michael Marriott

In creating this product I was immediately intrigued by DYN-Metal and their highly specialist processing, which is so particular to their world. They manufacture and process a range of super high specification bronzes, from their foundry in Park Royal, for use as bushes and bearings in a gamut of diverse applications. Bronze, a supremely beautiful and heavy material, with such specific properties, makes it the foremost choice for bushings and bearings, but it’s also the traditional material for sculpture casting.

In both instances though, you rarely see the raw material. Sculptures are typically patinated dark brown, or in the hands of Jasper Johns, and many artists since, painted to represent something else, such as two beer cans. When used for bushings and bearings, the bronze is relegated to a hidden service role within the depths of some mechanical contraption, such as a tube station escalator.

So with all this in mind, I wanted to make something that would utilise the inherent weight and beauty of bronze, and take advantage of the machine processing that DYN-Metal are so expert at. Their materials are either extruded or centrifugally cast, into very fat-walled tubes of various dimensions. These ‘tubes’ provide the primary form for the bushes and bearings they make.

Utilising this ‘doughnutlike’ readymade form, with a little precision machining to make a kind of hefty foot, seemed to make sense for the main element of the doorstop — but to make it easy to move, it should have a handle.

I decided to juxtapose the crisp machined bronze with a much more prosaic material for the handle — mild steel re-bar. This is another material usually hidden from view, inside cast concrete floors or columns, and, although a hard-core utility stock, has a tactility, which makes it suit being the point of contact with your hand when moving the doorstop.