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Cubus Spiralis — Stainless Steel
Project type
Sculpture · Stainless steel fabrication
The piece
Cubus Spiralis by Katz Studio turns stainless steel into a freestanding, twisting form. Its geometry shifts as the viewer moves around it: edges become surfaces, reflections break and reconnect, and the surrounding space becomes part of the sculpture. The finished views show how a highly worked metal surface can give a precise geometric object a changing, almost fluid presence.
This is a fabrication project, built by fitting and welding shaped metal components. The workshop photographs follow those sections through assembly, joint work and surface preparation. The central demand is to carry the twist cleanly across every connection: alignment establishes the overall geometry, while refinement of the welds brings the separate parts into visual continuity. Polishing then develops the reflective finish. Together, the construction sequence and finished views show why the quality of the final reflection depends on the care given to the surface well before the last polishing stage.
The piece
Levitaz Armchair by Katz Studio gives a folded, fabric-like form the permanence of bronze. The seat, arms and back flow into one another through broad surfaces and deep creases. The challenge was to cast and assemble these folds without visible interruptions at the joins. Its polished finish makes every change of direction visible, bringing light and reflection into the reading of the piece.
The process
01 — Planning the bronze castings
The chair begins as a digital form, but preparing it for bronze means thinking beyond what the printer can accommodate. The model is divided around the casting and assembly plan, with particular attention to the deep folds and the junctions between the seat, arms and back. Each printed segment becomes a physical pattern. For an edition, molds taken from these patterns allow wax replicas to be made for the lost-wax process. The section boundaries must anticipate both the foundry work and access for joining and finishing afterward.
02 — Casting, welding and chasing
Once cast, the bronze components are cleaned and brought together for fitting. Small differences at a connection can interrupt the movement of a fold, so alignment is checked across the whole chair before welding begins. Welding unites the separate parts, while chasing works the weld areas back into the surrounding form. This is painstaking handwork: the aim is to remove the evidence of assembly without erasing a crease, flattening a ridge or changing the relationship between adjacent surfaces.
03 — Hand polishing the bronze
The polished surface is developed through successive stages of abrasion and polishing. Broad planes can be worked more openly, while the deep creases require smaller tools and repeated changes of approach. Tool marks and local irregularities must be addressed before the finer finish can read evenly. Inspection under changing light reveals where a transition still needs attention. This repeated handwork removes the evidence of casting and assembly while preserving the folds. The final polish is only possible once those earlier corrections are complete.
“For the Armchair, the difficult part was preserving the flow of the folds across every join. We had to plan the cast sections and the finishing together, so the completed chair would feel like one continuous form.”
Daniel Ortiz
Senior Engineer
The piece
Cubus Spiralis by Katz Studio turns stainless steel into a freestanding, twisting form. Its geometry shifts as the viewer moves around it: edges become surfaces, reflections break and reconnect, and the surrounding space becomes part of the sculpture. The challenge is to preserve that continuous movement in a material shaped and assembled by hand, giving precise geometry an almost fluid presence.
The process
01 — From 3D model to forming guide
The process begins with the 3D model, which defines the sculpture’s changing planes and turning edges. A printed reference translates that digital geometry into a physical guide for shaping the stainless-steel plates. Dividing the form into workable sections requires looking ahead: each plate must be accessible for forming, fit its neighbours and leave room for the welding and finishing that follow. Accurate shaping at this stage allows the sections to meet cleanly without changing the sculpture’s twist.
02 — Forming, fitting and welding
The plates are gradually hammered into shape and checked against the reference. This is patient, repetitive handwork: a change in one area affects how the edge meets the next plate. Trial fitting brings those relationships into focus before the components are welded together. During assembly, alignment and the sequence of joining matter as much as the individual shapes. The welds are ground and dressed by hand until the joins blend into the surrounding steel, taking care not to flatten the curves or soften the edges.
03 — Grinding and polishing
Polishing is a sequence of surface corrections, not a single final pass. Weld areas and tool marks are worked back, followed by progressively finer abrasion and polishing. Broad faces, turning edges and recessed transitions each require a different approach and repeated inspection. A reflective finish makes small irregularities conspicuous, so the surface must be considered as a whole. The mirror finish depends on the preparation beneath it. Each successive abrasive removes the marks left by the previous stage, until the joined plates reflect light evenly across the sculpture.
“The challenge with Cubus was making separate steel plates read as one uninterrupted twist. We had to protect that continuity at every stage—from shaping and fitting the sections to refining each weld and developing the final reflection.”
Daniel Ortiz
Senior Engineer
The piece
Wind Panel VI by Katz Studio captures the movement of folded cloth in a resin wall sculpture. Ridges and recesses carry a sense of directional movement across the piece, while its reflective surface changes with the light. Blue and purple finishes give the same form different effects: highlights collect along the folds, and deeper tones draw the eye into the spaces between them.
The process
01 — Capturing the folds
Wind Panel VI starts with a form whose smallest changes of direction affect the finished reflection. The mold must capture the sharp ridges and deep recesses while allowing the resin form to be released without damaging those details. Planning the mold around that geometry is essential: the divisions need to be practical for fabrication, but their traces must be accessible for later refinement. Mold sections must hold their shape during production and separate cleanly afterward. Their join lines are placed where they can be reached for filling and sanding without damaging the surrounding detail.
02 — Preparing a continuous surface
After forming, the resin surface is inspected and worked by hand. Mold lines, local imperfections and transitions need attention before the coating process begins. Sanding has to follow the changing geometry rather than flatten it; a narrow crease and a broad raised fold require different tools and a different touch. Preparation builds through filling, smoothing and suitable primer layers, with repeated checks under light. Each primer stage is checked for pinholes, scratches and uneven areas. These are corrected before the next coating, so the final reflection does not reveal defects beneath it.
03 — Developing the blue fade
The finish gives the panel its shifting character. Reflective layers and color are developed across a surface that continually turns toward and away from the spray. Exposed ridges and sheltered recesses receive the coating differently, so coverage and transitions must be controlled through careful passes and inspection. For the blue fade, the color needs to move across the form without interrupting its flow. The panel is checked under changing light to assess the color gradient, coverage in the recesses and consistency of the reflective surface. The finish must accentuate the folds without obscuring them.
“With Wind Panel VI, we wanted the blue fade to follow the movement of the folds. The challenge was keeping the color transition controlled while letting the reflection bring out every ridge and recess.”
Alex Ibarra
Paint Shop Lead
The piece
Levitaz Coffee Table by Katz Studio translates the folds of draped cloth into a resin form. Broad planes dip into deep creases and rise again, giving the table a sense of movement even when viewed as a single silhouette. The white finish makes the changes in surface especially clear: shadows describe the folds while softer highlights follow the wider planes. The main production challenge was to reproduce the deep folds and remove the mold seams before applying the gloss white finish.
The process
01 — Planning the mold
The table’s deep folds make the mold a central part of the production strategy. The original form has to be divided into workable areas, with attention to where the mold opens and how each surface can be reached. A division that is convenient at this stage may create a difficult seam later, so molding and finishing are considered together. The mold sections capture the broad surfaces and narrow creases, while their support shells keep them in shape during casting. Planning the openings and seams together makes the form repeatable without sacrificing its detail.
02 — Building and joining the form
Resin and fiberglass composite construction allows the shape to be developed as a shell, with reinforcement where the structure needs it. During fabrication, separate areas are brought together and the connections are worked into the surrounding surface. The practical challenge is to retain the movement of the original while creating a stable object: reinforcement belongs within the construction, and the joining work must not leave ridges that interrupt the folds. The sections are fitted and bonded, then the seams are filled and sanded by hand until the surface is continuous.
03 — Preparing the white finish
A clean white finish is unforgiving of uneven surfaces. Before the final coating, the form is filled, sanded and primed in successive stages, with epoxy and automotive preparation materials selected for the surface and coating system. Broad planes and recessed folds are inspected separately, then considered together under light. Any small seam or waviness becomes more apparent once the finish develops its sheen. This preparation removes small surface defects before the gloss coating makes them more visible. The finished surface should follow the folds cleanly, without seams, ridges or sanding marks.
“The mold had to give us access to the deepest folds without losing their character. We planned the divisions around both release and finishing, because the clean white surface would reveal any interruption left behind.”
Lucia Martinez
Senior Engineer, Molding
The piece
Levitaz Coffee Table by Katz Studio translates the movement of draped cloth into bronze. Its broad tabletop rolls into deep folds, making the structure read as one continuous gesture. The design depends on a contrast between material and form: a heavy cast material carrying the impression of something soft and fluid. Light moves across the polished planes and settles into the recesses, making the surface an essential part of the form.
The process
01 — From digital folds to casting patterns
The digital model is divided with the foundry process in mind. The broad top and deeply turning folds cannot be treated simply as pieces that fit a printer; each segment must work as a casting and remain accessible for assembly. Printed patterns carry those planned divisions into the workshop. Mold making then preserves the surface and allows the wax stage to reproduce it for lost-wax casting. Care at these early stages protects the proportions and crease lines that give the table its distinctive sense of draped movement.
02 — Casting and assembling the bronze
In lost-wax casting, the wax forms are enclosed in a heat-resistant mold. The wax is removed and molten bronze fills the resulting cavity. Once cooled and removed from the mold, the cast components are cleaned and prepared for fitting. Assembly brings those individual castings back into the original geometry. The joins are welded and chased by hand, gradually blending them into the surrounding surface. A slight change across a seam can interrupt the way a fold reads, so the work is judged across the whole table as well as at each connection. The aim is to remove visible joins while preserving the table’s folds and proportions.
03 — Preparing and polishing the surface
Finishing proceeds through successive levels of abrasion, surface correction and polishing. The broad top makes small irregularities visible, while the deeper folds demand access with more focused tools. Those areas must ultimately share the same quality of reflection without losing their different contours. Repeated inspection guides where more work is needed before the final sheen is developed. The finished table’s apparent softness rests on this sustained manual effort: casting, joining and polishing all have to preserve the fluid character of the original form.
“We had to preserve the folds through every transfer—from printed pattern to mold, wax and bronze. For this table, a good mold was the starting point for keeping the finished form fluid and consistent.”
Lucia Martinez
Senior Engineer, Molding
The piece
Rock Table by Katz Studio explores a sharply faceted form in cast stainless steel. The base gathers a network of ridges, planes and recesses into a sculptural support, with a polished surface that catches its surroundings in fragments. The fabrication challenge was to preserve the sharp edges through casting, assembly and polishing.
The process
01 — Preparing the casting patterns
The digital model establishes the table’s intersecting planes and sharply defined ridges. Before printing, the form is divided into segments around the requirements of casting, assembly and later tool access. The printed patterns establish the shape of each casting. We plan the divisions so that the components can be joined accurately and the welds remain accessible to finishing tools. This preparation protects the sharp intersections between adjacent faces through casting and assembly.
02 — Assembling the stainless castings
The cast components are cleaned, fitted and joined into the complete form. Their alignment matters not only to the outline of the table but also to the way neighbouring facets meet. Welding joins the components, and the joined areas are worked back carefully so that a seam does not become an unwanted change of plane. The challenge is to preserve the crisp geometry while removing the traces of construction. Each junction is considered locally and in relation to the network of ridges that runs through the whole piece.
03 — Polishing without softening the facets
Stainless steel demands sustained surface work to develop a reflective finish. Coarser corrections are followed by progressively finer abrasion and polishing, with particular care at the meeting point of two planes. Too much local refinement can soften a ridge; too little leaves a mark that the final reflection makes conspicuous. Recesses and exposed faces require different approaches, then repeated inspection brings their finish into balance. The final inspection checks the edges as well as the reflections: each facet must remain clearly defined, with no visible seam or polishing mark.
“Rock Table asked us to polish the surface without polishing away the geometry. We had to keep every ridge deliberate while bringing the cast sections and their joins into one coherent reflection.”
Daniel Ortiz
Senior Engineer
Project type
Wall sculpture · Resin fabrication
The piece
Spectra Wall Panel by Katz Studio turns a complex resin surface into a study of light. Its sharply articulated geometry reads differently across reflective and satin-black finishes: one catches and fragments the surrounding space, while the other draws attention to the form through shadow and restrained highlights. The challenge was to assemble and finish the panel without softening its ridges or leaving visible joins.
The process
01 — Printing and planning the components
Spectra’s sharply articulated form begins with a digital model and printed resin components. Planning the parts means considering more than printer capacity: the seams must be accessible, adjoining features must align, and the construction has to support the intended wall piece. The printed components are checked and fitted so that ridges line up across each connection. This stage establishes the accuracy that later preparation and finishing depend on; a coating cannot correct a misaligned ridge without changing the design.
02 — Reinforcing and refining
The components are brought together and the assembled surface is worked by hand. In this approach to resin fabrication, epoxy and fiberglass reinforcement can support printed shells while keeping the detailed printed face intact. The visible joints then require careful filling and sanding so they disappear into the geometry. Narrow recesses and sharp transitions make that work particularly demanding: removing a seam must not blur the surrounding detail. Repeated checks across the assembled panel keep local repairs consistent with the overall form before the piece moves into coating preparation.
03 — Building the finish in layers
Surface preparation continues through primer and refinement stages, using epoxy and automotive materials as part of a compatible coating system. Each layer depends on the quality beneath it, so imperfections are corrected before the final finish develops. Reflective surfaces expose waviness and residual marks, while satin black makes the clarity of the ridges and subtle highlights especially important. The coating and finishing sequence is therefore tailored to the intended result. Primer and sanding stages remove scratches, pinholes and traces of the joins before the final coating. The finished panel is checked for consistent coverage and clean detail across both raised surfaces and recesses.
“Spectra makes every preparation decision visible. We had to erase the joins without softening the detail, then build a finish that lets the geometry speak—whether through a strong reflection or a restrained satin highlight.”
Alex Ibarra
Paint Shop Lead
Project details
Artist / studio — Katz Studio
Material — Bronze
Finish — Polished bronze
Services provided
Bronze casting
Assembly and welding
Surface preparation and polishing
Related projects
Rock Table · Cast stainless steel
Cubus Spiralis · Stainless steel
Have a project in mind?
From a first idea to a fabrication-ready brief, let’s discuss the material, scale and finish of your next piece.
Matterworks
Artist-led digital fabrication.
Project details
Artist / studio — Katz Studio
Material — Stainless steel
Finish — Polished stainless steel
Services provided
Metal fabrication
Assembly and welding
Surface refinement and polishing
Related projects
Rock Table · Cast stainless steel
Have a project in mind?
From a first idea to a fabrication-ready brief, let’s discuss the material, scale and finish of your next piece.
Matterworks
Artist-led digital fabrication.
Project details
Artist / studio — Katz Studio
Material — Resin composite
Finish — Reflective color finishes
Services provided
Silicone molding
Resin fabrication
Surface preparation and specialty finishes
Related projects
Have a project in mind?
From a first idea to a fabrication-ready brief, let’s discuss the material, scale and finish of your next piece.
Matterworks
Artist-led digital fabrication.
Project details
Artist / studio — Katz Studio
Material — Resin composite
Finish — Gloss white
Services provided
Mold work
Resin fabrication
Surface preparation and coating
Related projects
Have a project in mind?
From a first idea to a fabrication-ready brief, let’s discuss the material, scale and finish of your next piece.
Matterworks
Artist-led digital fabrication.
Project details
Artist / studio — Katz Studio
Material — Bronze
Finish — Polished bronze
Services provided
Bronze casting
Assembly and joining
Surface preparation and polishing
Related projects
Rock Table · Cast Stainless Steel
Have a project in mind?
From a first idea to a fabrication-ready brief, let’s discuss the material, scale and finish of your next piece.
Matterworks
Artist-led digital fabrication.
Project details
Artist / studio — Katz Studio
Material — Cast stainless steel
Finish — Polished stainless steel
Services provided
Stainless-steel casting
Assembly
Surface preparation and polishing
Related projects
Cubus Spiralis · Stainless steel
Have a project in mind?
From a first idea to a fabrication-ready brief, let’s discuss the material, scale and finish of your next piece.
Matterworks
Artist-led digital fabrication.
Project details
Artist / studio — Katz Studio
Material — Resin
Finish — Reflective and satin-black finishes
Services provided
Resin fabrication
Surface preparation
Coating and finishing
Related projects
Cubus Spiralis · Stainless steel
Have a project in mind?
From a first idea to a fabrication-ready brief, let’s discuss the material, scale and finish of your next piece.
Matterworks
Artist-led digital fabrication.