Artistic Process: Handcrafted, LLC’s Steasles
Matthew McQueen and Colin Skinner of Handcrafted, LLC have created the ultimate artist’s tool—the Steasel. When artist and friend Robert Lange came to McQueen with the request for him to build a custom easel, it launched the creation of a whole new product—one that is now already in high demand by the artistic masses.
The Steasel is an artist’s easel made of steel panels and magnetized wooden mounts that can be moved to accommodate any size canvas or panel, giving the artist greater freedom than a traditional easel. The magnetic properties really allow for these Steasels to evolve into many different things, explained Lange. “One of the nicest things about the Steasel is that it’s also a work of art in the gallery,” he also says.
The second Steasel was created for artist Kevin LePrince, which consisted of five large panels permanently mounted on his wall. These work well for LePrince, allowing him the freedom to work on multiple pieces (of varying sizes) at once or one very large piece supported across the panels.
Noticing how excited local artists were about their Steasels, Skinner and McQueen decided to tweak the design into one that is more flexible and can accommodate various artists and their space needs. Handcrafted, LLC has created a Steasel that measures 4 x 5 feet and features 4 sliding steel panels of 8 inches x 4 feet. These panels are then fixed to the wall. Salvaged wood and some seriously strong magnets are used to create movable mounts for the front of the Steasels. These are used to hold the canvases (or almost anything you can think of) to the steel panels. To change to a different canvas size, all you have to do is simply move the magnetized mount. It’s that simple.
Skinner and McQueen use domestic wood as much as possible and are big on using repurposed steel. Currently they offer cherry wood with a rusted steel finish or ebonized oak with a gun blue patina on the steel, but the color possibilities and uses for the Steasel are endless.
words: Stacy Huggins
images: Karson Photography
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