THE GENESIS OF EQVIVANCE
It all started with the fascinating allure of stainless steel, and especially the unique haptic quality it attains when the ultimate surface finish, of the very highest quality, is achieved. The unique inspirational leap was to combine this material with nature’s most graceful creature – the horse.
In 2012 Dr. Elmar Westhoff, COO of Otto Junker GmbH, set in motion a project which he called EQVIVANCE, after a visit to the ‘CHIO Aachen – The World Equestrian Festival’. Each horse is unique in its beauty and elegance and of course in its inspiring character. The ambition is always to achieve a perfect fusion of the individual character of the horse and the stainless steel material. Both represent power, grace and eternity.
We make it possible to commemorate each customer’s horse forever, in a true-to-life mirror-polished stainless steel sculpture: one of a kind, just like its living inspiration. Handcrafted – made in Germany – to the utmost levels of perfection and manufactured to customers’ precise requirements.
A powerfully expressive portrait of each customer’s horse, at life size or to whichever scale is desired, cast in gleaming stainless steel. Customers’ horses can now be immortalized in all of their elegance and dynamism, in a manner never before possible.
EQVIVANCE – EQuus – VIVa – elegANCE is born.
THE PROCESS
All steps of the process are carried out by hand.
The process workflow consists of the following steps:
1. Scanning the individual horse using 8 high-technology camera systems. Important detail pictures are taken using a high resolution camera.
2. These digital pictures are then converted into computer data to be used as the basis for computer modeling. By combining views from different angles, the computer model enables us to create a virtual image of the living horse, complete all of its individual features. The computer model can also simulate the polished stainless steel surface.
The modeling data gives us all the information we need to manufacture the handcrafted sculpture, the embodiment of the living natural creature.
3. What follows is an extraordinarily painstaking manufacturing process to ensure that we fulfill customers’ expectations. We have many years of expertise in casting and surface polishing, working in collaboration with reliable and experienced partners.
4. Each and every step of the process is ‘Made in Germany’.