Since the founding of Toro-Cordes in Birmingham in 1999, we have used the processes, tools, and techniques employed by traditional blacksmith artisans to create works that have both a substantial function as well as an innate and undeniable aesthetic beauty and elegance. Both attributes are widely considered hallmarks of heirloom quality.

As a large number of our most striking works have been the result of close design collaboration with our clients, we welcome design suggestions and input. After all, part of our role is to create the perfect one-of-a-kind item, fulfilling the unique requests of each individual customer. On the other hand, some clients prefer to provide a mere general description of what they need, and many wondrous pieces take shape simply through the unfettered creativity and sense of experimentation that thrives in the environment of our humble workplace.

Regardless of how design details are solidified, every unique piece is painstakingly hand-forged over the anvils in our shop. Along with Justin and Jay, Toro-Cordes is extremely fortunate to have on its small, hand-picked team the seasoned hands of Chris Toro, an original founder and all-around nice guy. We are also infinitely lucky to have at our disposal the talents of local sculptress and rising star Julia Peerson, whose jewelry and metal dresses have appeared at shows across the country.

Like generations of metal artisans and blacksmiths before us, we are constantly refining our skills and creative approach to our craft in the hopes that even the most subtle details present in each and every piece reveal something of our dedication and passion for what we do. Forging absolutely new works that are as exciting to our clients as they are to us continues to be the most treasured reward we receive for our work.

Anna Esh is a homespun talent in rural Pennsylvania.

Our first meeting was as we were searching for quilts in the heart of Amish country. We were instantly charmed by her and her family's warm smiles, their immaculate white wooden house and barn, and their gardens, punctuated by old children's shoes planted with flowers.

Her workroom was just off the main house, filled with quilts and other textle works of art. We are proud to offer her hand-crafted teapot mats, a small textile creation, charming in and of its own.

Elements from Nature can be used to create works of art. Being a nature lover myself, I began crafting Alabama pine needle baskets over twenty years ago after receiving a gift from a friend-a craftbook that contained a section entitled "Gather, Coil, and Weave Your Own Baskets". After that, you might say I became a basket case.

After mastering the basic skills of pine needle and raffia basketry, I started creating my own designs. My designs are original and often develop as the piece is being constructed. I like to say that I put my eggs in more than one basket as once I begin to coil and weave, I find myself excited thinking about the next basket I will craft.

I gather the Southern Pine needles from the land surrounding my country home in Southern Alabama, bringing the needles in to wash and clean. The needles are allowed to fully dry, then they are bundled. I begin with a raffia base then begin to coil and weave pine needles until the basket is complete.

My baskets are made from my heart and over the years have been given to my family and friends as gifts. I hope those who visit The Brown House enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed crafting them.

His materials are heavy bronze, steel, copper, aluminum, concrete. But the forms stretch upward, precisely balanced, appearing to be lighter than air. And water flows across many of the sculptures, so uninhibited that the water itself seems to dictate the form.

Larry Godwin, born at the height of the Great Depression in rural South Alabama, has spent much of his life translating his aesthetic visions into environmental art and fountains. Public and privately held examples of his work dot the Southeast and other parts of the country and Europe.

Larry received his initial arts training at Auburn University, graduating with a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in 1957. After a stint in the Army, Larry opened a gallery in Brundidge, Alabama, eventually adding a full metal fabrication and foundry shop. After a tour of Europe, he completed his first large commission, a mural at the Gayle Planetarium in Montgomery, Alabama in 1967. A tendency toward relief elements in the artist's otherwise two-dimensional works led to medium and large-scale welded metal fully three-dimensional sculptures beginning in 1968.

Larry Godwin was one of the first artists in the Artist-in-Residence program when it went national in 1970, teaching with great success in rural elementary, middle and high schools over two school years. He notably supervised the student construction of a school mascot (an eagle) from 1,400 pounds of chrome automobile bumpers from a local junkyard.

The sculptor's interest in fountain technology led to the first public fountain installations at a Montgomery mall in 1977 and an unpublished technical manuscript on fountain sculpture. A recent fountain grouping at Kindercare's home office in Montgomery celebrates the whimsy of childhood fantasies.

Other notable monumental sculptures include work for Disney World, Alabama State University, and Hard Rock Café. A full-scale interpretation of the Wright Brother's 1910 flier at the Air Force's Air University in Montgomery in 1985 has led to other Wright fliers in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1989 (the 1903 "Kitty Hawk" model) and Dayton, Ohio, completed this year (the 1905 model).

Larry frequently works with architects to incorporate sculpture into a building's ecology at the planning stage. He recently produced a series of seven bronze panels depicting in relief the history of Montgomery for a park in the Retirement Systems of Alabama complex.

In addition to his Art Wurks gallery, Larry Godwin currently maintains a 10,000 square foot warehouse with overhead crane and other facilities for constructing and manipulating the monumental scale sculptures and fountains he favors. A foundry, lost wax casting center and other annexes bring the total workspace to 16,000 square feet.

He continues to explore new forms, methods and materials such as sculptures that expand and contract or interlocking elements that combine in an infinite variety of ways.

The Brown House is pleased to be the exclusive Birmingham gallery for Larry's sculpture. See some of his works in our online Gallery.

Get a dog. Find a hobby.

That was Bill Stewart's advice in a speech to former employees approaching retirement.

Bill was a "late-bloomer" in the crafts world. His business career had left little time for hobbies and he had never "made anything with his hands." When he retired and discovered "stick making" he fell in love with woodworking and spent many long hours in his basement workshop. He also became a shopper (to his wife's delight) and could not pass a flea market or antique mall without stopping to search for unusual pieces to pair with his sticks.

Bill discovered stick making by accident. A life-long walker and hiker, Bill always carried a cane on his walks. Often, on unplanned outings, he would fashion a temporary hiking stick from a small sapling or branch and then discard it at the end of the hike. However, on one such hike, the stick that caught his eye was just too interesting to leave in the woods and thus began his career as "the stick man."
Searching deep in the Alabama woods for small trees bound by vines, Bill would cut them down and carry them back to his workshop where he would strip them of their bark to enhance the carving that nature had already begun. He would sand and polish the wood and then top each stick with a flea market treasure - a crystal doorknob, a silver cup, an antique marble.

Bill's stick making, however, was more than craft. It connected him to people across the country. From searching the woods with family and friends, to bartering with flea market vendors and meeting with gallery owners, his stick making expanded his world and greatly enhanced his golden years. He enjoyed providing sticks for fundraisers and delivering sticks to nursing homes. Most of all, he enjoyed giving his walking sticks to friends and neighbors, encouraging them to "walk and be happy; walk and be healthy." It certainly worked for him.