We recently found ourselves engrossed in a three-minute film showing the inner workings of a Florentine brassware workshop. Completely unromanticized, it showed strip lights flickering to life and casting light on battered work benches, welding torches being lit, and molten brass being poured into moulds. The resulting objects—solid brass handles designed and commissioned by Swedish-born, London-based designe Beata Heuman—were then filed and polished, each piece individually shaped and shined by the “bronzista”.
“We have been making brass handles in Florence for almost seven years,” Beata recently divulged to recipients of her newsletter. “It has been a real treat to go to the workshop and see them being made using traditional techniques and—in some instances—machines that are over 150 years old. My maker tells me that while Italy used to be full of these kind of outfits, it is now a dying industry. There are few left working in this way. I hope we can turn that around.”
Here we share Beata’s playful yet classic designs.
![beata demonstrates how to mix and match the collection in the kitchen, starting 17](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/beata-heuman-rope-pull-733x977.jpg)
![the button, made from un lacquered, lightly antiqued, solid brass (£36). 18](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/beata-heuman-the-button-733x977.jpg)
![the knot (£54). \2\20;a sturdy and reassuringly weighty knob that w 19](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/beata-heuman-the-knot-733x978.jpg)
![the beehive (£54). beata first designed the beehive for the cupboard doors 20](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/beata-heuman-beehive-handles-733x978.jpg)
![the bow handle (£60) – which reads like a decorative banner ribbon 21](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/beata-heuman-bow-handle-1-733x978.jpg)
Take a look at the full collection here. And for more Beata Heuman, see:
- Paddington Pied-à-Terre: A Colorful Small-Space London Design by Beata Heuman
- A Masterful Mix-and-Match Apartment in London by Beata Heuman
- A Rising Star’s Spirited London Home: ‘Every Room Should Sing!’
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