Green Leap Tenderwerks

Tenderwerks

Pati Beachley is a Pittsburgh-based, non-binary sculptor. Her work mixes masculine and feminine attributes forcing a dialogue into gendered text and imagery—she adds a queer narrative by casting carpet and fibrous materials. As owner and designer of Tenderwerks, her Pittsburgh-based studio and foundry, Pati creates pieces celebrating the pleasure of everyday, useful objects that transcend the ordinary. With Green Leap, Pati applies her unique aesthetic to functional, sustainable hardware.

Green Leap Participant

New Products Coming Soon
Debuting with Monmade — April 2023

Pati is currently developing hardware collections for Tenderwerks featuring repurposed carpet textures cast from recycled aluminum truck components. These artful creations help answer the expressed need by options of Pittsburgh interior designers and architects to source locally-made hardware for their projects. While addressing practical requirements, Pati applies her aesthetic to reclaimed materials to knobs and handles for cabinetry and pulls for entry doors.

“I am developing best practices for sustainability in my studio production by assessing the durability and longevity of products by developing a lifecycle strategy and by evaluating material choice, sourcing, and processes.”

– Pati Beachley

With Monmade’s guidance, Pati is refining her prototyped hardware (pictured here) to align with industry expectations and requirements. As she standardizes details like the depth and spacing of the handles and knobs, she will offer an additional collection featuring simplified textures and shapes. Tenderwerks’ finalized hardware collections will debut in April at our premiere Green Leap design industry event.

Green Leap Event Details

sustainablyMonmade Insights 

Through our assessment her studio and production manufacturing practices, Tenderwerks achieves four of Monmade’s six dimensions of sustainability: environment, climate, human health, and social equity.

  • Non-binary-owned creative business
  • Producer utilizes her studio facility in Pittsburgh and at Seton Hill University, where she is a professor. The Seton Hill Arts complex is a state-of-the-art facility designed and built with environmental responsibility as a top priority. The facility boasts high ceilings, increased ventilation, connection to the outdoors, operable windows, large openings to filter the air, increased water and air filtration systems, and advanced tools and machinery
  • Producer works in all metal casting products, using everything from the ancient process of lost wax and modern bonded sand products. The cast aluminum product used in her hardware production is neutral for human health in its final form
  • All materials are sourced within a 200-mile radius of producer’s primary facilities. She is currently working with a local foundry supplier in Lancaster, PA. For Tenderwerk’s Green Leap hardware products, producer purchases otherwise discarded truck pistons from local repair facilities
  • Producer is also working with other natural raw materials, including stone, ceramic, porcelain, sand, clay, oil clay, wax, and plaster
  • The melting time for aluminum is about an hour, so a short cycle for production and working off-peak hours reduces energy and focus time. Producer groups molds together to pour all at once to minimize gas consumption by the furnace
  • Metal and cast aluminum have a lifespan that will outlive most humans. Any previous products can be remelted or could go to resale for another building or recycled for profit. Aluminum may also be repaired and rewelded as needed. Tenderwerks will include a take-back program on the installation instructions and can potentially give credit, like a percentage off purchase, for any recycled aluminum returned
  • Producer recycles most material waste and considers how to use them economically (e.g., molds made with plaster and sand can be recycled into new molds)

Learn more about Monmade’s holistic approach to sustainability.