Summer 2024, touring a decommissioned shipyard near Seattle. I found a massive sheet of metal plating—pocked with hundreds of perfectly uniform, weathered rivets—that had oxidized to a distressed taupe color over decades of exposure.

The technique of applying a rough, textured neutral background first, and then pressing a specialized cylindrical tool to create the repetitive recessed grid, with a final light brushing of white paint to simulate oxidized metal around the heads of the 'rivets,' was inspired by that beautiful, functional decay.