Steel Square Coaster with Blackened Hammered and Forged Surface

Doud Studios was founded by Damon James to create custom functional art for the home. Each piece produced by Doud Studios is one-of-one and therefore entirely unique. Damon crafts each design using traditional forging techniques, ensuring a legacy for generations to come. Never cast, designed and made by the artist himself, these custom pieces are made of bronze, steel and/or aluminum. Materials and patina vary, and just as each home is unique, the metal will develop its own relationship to its surroundings, creating yet another unique aspect of this custom work. Damon was introduced to the craft of blacksmithing as a teenager when he took a class with renowned American blacksmith Francis Whitaker. After a traditional apprenticeship, Damon opened his own forge. For more than 15 years, he specialized in creating custom architectural pieces for luxury homes and hotels, eschewing welding by using the oldest known forging techniques. One day at his grandmother’s old house in Pebble Beach, Damon and his step-mother were talking over the pewter countertop in the kitchen. He noticed a pattern and his step-mother told him that was where she would slide his brother’s breakfast to him each morning. This precious daily routine and loving memory was alive in the metal and inspired Damon to create a line of furniture for the home, to be lived with and around, coming alive to each family’s way of life, just like that memory of his step-mother passing his brother breakfast every day.