Journal

On brass, and the people who beat it

Journal

On brass, and the people who beat it

July 28, 20266 min read

Why brass darkens, and why we let it

Every house that works in brass faces the same question on day one: lacquer it, or leave it. We leave it. Here is the argument for a metal that refuses to stay new.

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History

July 11, 20269 min read

The cowrie was money before it was ornament

For four centuries the shell we set into a ring was a unit of account from Bengal to Benin. Wearing one is not a motif. It is a citation.

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The house

June 30, 20265 min read

The economics of making exactly one

A mould pays for itself at the two-hundredth cast. We never reach it. What that does to a price, and what it buys you that a run of two hundred cannot.

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