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Design Find | New Ravenna Mosaics: Spectacular Designs + Innovative Techniques Mean The Sky Is The Limit!

Every once in awhile a new tile designer comes across my design desk whose product totally wows me, and Sara Baldwin and her company New Ravenna Mosaics has done just that. {I was going to say her designs “floor me,” but the pun was just too painful for such spectacular product.}

These decadent and luxurious mosaics are all created by hand by a team of 120 artisans and designers who work out of the New Ravenna Mosaics studio located in Exmore, Virginia, all under the direction of Founder and Creative Director Sara Baldwin. Using a mix of the traditional Italian hand-cut opus tessallatum technique and the modern day water jet technique, these spectacular patterns range from the lyrical to the geometric and from the graphic to the organic.

I confess that I have a secret Dream House that I am designing {emphasis on dream at the moment}, and I have been searching for quite some time for tile designs to use for a striking front entry – specifically, designs that would compliment the sophistication of a French white oak herringbone or chevron hardwood floor without competing too much. Let’s just say that several of these New Ravenna patterns will be going into my inspiration file for future use.

Working with materials ranging from natural stone and glass to bronze and gold accents, New Ravenna can completely customize any motif, even using the opus vermiculatum technique when necessary {water jet shapes outlined in hand cut pieces}.

Each mosaic is available made-to-measure for an individual installation according to the specifications of the designer or architect. Often, a design is interpreted into a custom colour palette and various materials, like mother of pearl, bronze, gold and glass are combined with marble and natural stone to create a truly bespoke tile application. Translation: The sky is the limit. A designer’s custom tile dreams come true!

If you find yourself thinking a true artist must be at the heart of the development of such a visual stunning line, you are most correct. It was while studying for her MFA in painting that Baldwin visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and fell in love with an ancient Roman mosaic pavement from the third century. Her fascination with the historic art of mosaics led Baldwin to learn for herself the centuries-old traditional mosaic techniques, and this led to the development of the spectacular line of New Ravenna Mosaics today.

How utterly femme-glam is the mirrored ikat mosaic above? {bites palm} Even the softer, ocean-toned ikat below is utterly sexy and glamorous.

Clearly, Sara Baldwin is a woman after my own heart with designs like this chevron pattern, below.

From traditional to modern, from graphic to painterly and even whimsical, Sara Baldwin and her team of artisans and designers at New Ravenna Mosaic have won me over.

Perhaps seeing the possibilities and these innovative designs from New Ravenna Mosaics will expand your imagination and leave you dreaming a little bigger? I know it has for me. In fact, I have no doubt I’ll be dreaming in tile and pattern tonight as I drift off.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|October 8th, 2013|4 Comments

Lighting Love | Fantasy-like and delicate: The Medusae Collection

I have never been one for what I would call “theme decorating.” You know, “It’s a sailor’s room!” or “We went with a pirate theme!” Nope. Not even for kids rooms. Can’t handle it. My cheese-ometer just red-lines instantly. I much prefer an eclectic, curated mix that reflects the craftsmanship and artistry of the makers of the furniture, lighting, rugs, fabrics, art and objet used in the space, as well as {most importantly!} the uniqueness of the home’s inhabitants. This means that there are many design products that don’t even make it onto my radar because they would fall too much into the camp of some overwrought theme that gives me the designer heebie-jeebies.

And yet – defying all the odds like a Capulet meeting a Montague – I’ve been charmed by today’s lighting find, aptly named The Medusae Collection. Organic and subtle while being clearly outspoken about its source of inspiration, this delicate and diaphanous collection is just honest enough to win me over.

I confess my first thought on where I might specify these translucent beauties is in a commercial application. They would make for a stunning grouping in a restaurant with very high ceilings, scattered at various heights to leave guests feeling like they are dining beneath a bloom of jellyfish. But don’t go soundtracking the dining experience with “Under The Sea” or I’ll be gone before you hit the chorus! These beauties are far too sophisticated to be caught in the nets of cliché.

I think the “Hydra” {below} is my favourite piece in the collection, in part because it is the most subtle and least obvious member of this Aurelia family. This is probably the one piece I could see myself using in a residential context – perhaps a pair flanking a bed and hanging low in place of bedside lamps.

{All images by Kathryna Hancock}

There is an undeniably delicate, feminine charm to all of the pieces in The Medusae Collection, and that ethereal, other-worldly beauty is no doubt what has won me over.

Wishing you a cliché-free and entirely beautiful Thursday.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|October 3rd, 2013|0 Comments

The Curated Collection | Karyn Lyons

There is always for me a quality of escape that I look for in fine art – a transcendence that carries me to a new place or experience I’ve never had, or returns me to a feeling or a memory I once knew. The truth is, it is rather rare to discover this kind of transcendence in still life, for me at least. And yet that is exactly what I find myself experiencing in the stunning work of Karyn Lyons.

Blurring the lines between photo-realism and interpretation, Lyons sweeps me away into a dream-like state with her paintings. I feel as though I have awoken at midnight and wandered out into a grove, or perhaps sat down at a table with my love to savour the succulent flavours of nature and fine wine – simple things and decadent things effortlessly married like fantasy-meets-real-life.

With obvious respect for the 400 year history of still life portraiture, Lyons reinterprets traditional motifs with a decidedly modern aesthetic, expressing them in quietly luminous, often monochromatic palettes that add a cinematic, mysterious quality and depth to her work.

Artist and essayist George Ferrandi says, “…in art, apples are almost always in some residual conversation with temptation – but Lyons makes broader use of them. Somehow, in their associations with fall and the end of summer, and in the presence of these ever-woolen skies, the apple tree carts with it a feeling of ‘after.’ Like the moon is on the wane. Like the honeymoon is over.”

Karyn’s background is also quite fascinating. Lyons is an art director in the fashion industry. She worked at Polo Ralph Lauren and J. Crew before returning to school in 2001 for graduate studies at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After graduating in 2003, she spent a year working as a painter for Jeff Koons, where she worked on the Popeye series. Her first solo show was at the Sarah Bowen Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, in 2005. Since then, she has been in numerous group shows in the United States and abroad. She lives and works in New York City and Lima, Peru.

Lyons‘ latest work is currently on exhibition at MARCH in San Francisco through until November 23, 2013. The show includes 20 oil on canvas and oil on vellum paintings, sizes ranging between 3.5×3.5” to 44×60″. If you are in the area, I highly recommend making a point of stopping by for a visit.

MARCH

3075 Sacramento Street

San Francisco, CA

www.marchsf.com

Wishing you an inspired Monday!

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|September 30th, 2013|0 Comments