Show Us Some Skin

Or, Lions and Tigers and...Zebras!

This is one of my first mosaics a la 1992. It was made from porcelain tiles from the local American Olean distributorship in Philadelphia. I must have driven general manager Rick Odorico crazy--wandering into his shop with a baby on my hip, asking for "two square feet" of about fifteen different colors that were all on the top shelf. Last I heard Rick had been promoted inside Dal-tile to a very stratospheric level. Rick, if you're out there, a big THANK YOU.


It is entitled "A Mutually Satisfying Relationship" which gives you a glimpse into my psychology at the time. "If only I can find someone to swish flies off my nose, I'd gladly..." you get the picture. Come to think of it, what exactly is wrong with that philosophy? In any case, this was my first exposure to the joys of animal prints. Today, New Ravenna goes on safari regularly in both literal and abstract ways:


These are some of the more literal translations...Check out this incredible bar top that New Ravenna fabricated for a penthouse apartment. We not only made the mosaic, we mounted, grouted, and put a gorgeous finish on it as well:




Now we come to one of my favorite patterns--it's part of the "abstract" category of animal skin translations, and is part of the "metamorphosis" collection by Sara Baldwin Design. Several years ago, I was fascinated by a piece of zebra wood veneer that I kept on my desk. I scanned it in and blew it up to about ten times it's normal size, thinking I'd make it into an actual rug, made out of wool. I can't find the entire scan, but here's part of it:


Here are some wool rug samples I had made up--if you look closely, they're half loop, half cut-pile:


Then it occurred to me that we should be using our tatami stalks to fabricate a stone mosaic design in the same style and here's what we came up with:

The above panel is seven feet tall and obviously can be custom-made into whatever size panel you like...always with a random non-repeating pattern. It's especially popular as a back-splash . Below, see what happens to the pattern when it's turned in the vertical direction:

Studium, one of our favorite showrooms in New York (hi there David, Berna and Lucio!), originally suggested we recolor "zebrano", and a clever suggestion it was.

We also have a lovely two-shades-of-blue and white combo and a celadon green/gray/white combo which I have yet to post. Then again, you know us, we can't ever say "no", so you can order it in virtually any color you want, even in GLASS if you like that texture better. So go crazy. Show us some skin.

P.S. If you live anywhere near Denver (Oct. 13), Aspen (Oct. 14) or Vail (Oct 15): this week yours truly will be giving mosaic seminars at the Decorative Materials Showrooms. I look forward to meeting you!

Borderline...

Clients have been asking for New Ravenna borders to go with our new fields for some time now. One of the things I love about blogging is the immediate gratification--once the images are rounded up, posting them is a piece of cake, and eager sales associates in the wonderful showrooms that represent us can access them, well, immediately!



If you read my earlier blog post about the black and white waterjet line (it still needs a name...) you see that we showcase our new designs in black/gray/shades of white because it is easier to imagine changing the colors to whatever your hearts' desire. Yes, it's easy folks--we are a completely made-to-order business that thrives on making it your way. So go ahead, change colors, change scale, change design, change material--we can handle it.

To illustrate this point, below you can see some of New Ravenna's designs in (multi-colored) glass. What color schemes would you like to see? If you are curious about seeing certain colors in certain borders (or fields), we can mock it up for you and I'll publish the results in a future blog post. For color choices, go here.


Also, please let us know what you'd like to see, and critique what is shown here. We love it when customers make suggestions--these pages have not been sent to the printer yet, so there's still time to tweak them!

New Beau Monde for Ann Sacks

Or, Beau Bond. (sorry)

New Ravenna fabricates a newly expanded line called Beau Monde for Ann Sacks--more display boards just arrived in each showroom. At one time, the term "Beau Monde" referred to "the world of fashionable society". From the French, it translates as "good world".

Personally, I like the more literal translation.


Here are some of the newer designs that are either online or on display at your local Ann Sacks showroom. So you have a sense of scale, the above panels are 24" x 48", and each concept board below is 14" x 14":






Here's the repeat of the above pattern which looks to me like it should be the floor of a Gucci store, or perhaps behind the Hermes scarf counter (we could double the scale and make each square approximately 24" if we needed to):


Originally, when designing these patterns several years ago, I was very focused on how wonderful it was to live in a small town--specifically, the small town of Cape Charles, Virginia (now I understand what Seaside, Florida is all about). I'd always lived either in the boonies or in Philadelphia. I had no idea. During this period of time, busy at work in my home office, gazing out at the streets of Cape Charles, I was drawn to patterns that depicted linking mechanisms: stitching, mesh, chains, hoops, weaving.






It took me a while to realize that what I was designing was actually a physical representation of what I was appreciating about my life at the time--forgive me if I go a little cosmic on you--the feeling that we are somehow all connected, that I was part of a bigger picture, and that we all play a critical role in the success of the whole. Some people bristle at the lack of anonymity that goes along with small town life, but I loved it--it made me feel like I wasn't alone, that I was part of a team. Its convivial atmosphere reminded me of college.






(I love the repeat of this pattern)

Perhaps some of you read my post on synergy a few months ago. If you did, you can understand how starting a rock band also mimicked my life/design interests. Even the water-jet mosaic pieces themselves are a testament to the concept of connecting and fitting together harmoniously. I mean, individually, they're just...well...chunks of rock. But together, look at what they can become:


So now I live out in the boonies again (on a west-facing beach, in a new modern house, in paradise) but thankfully we're only eighteen minutes from the Cape Charles campus; Beau Monde, the "good world".

California Clients

Recently I returned from a trip to the left coast--southern California--and I stayed with dear college friends. I met the handsome male half of the couple the first week of my freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, and I've known his brilliant, beautiful, blond wife for over 20 years as well. They regularly include New Ravenna in their home renovations. As you can see, they are especially good at specifying our product for their outdoor projects:

In this seating area around a fireplace (to the right, outside of the photo) she used a simple Charleston border and basketweave field combination to create an outdoor "rug" --so clever, yet almost never done. Here's another area in the same back yard:


Tatami installed vertically and all the way down to the seat makes for a great textural change in the jacuzzi:


The pool border is a wave pattern in bardiglio and blue bahia:



I wish I had an overview shot to share. It's got to be one of the most gorgeous back yards in California.

Luckily for me, I got to actually see these installations in person. Which means I could actually photograph them. Connecting with our customers in order to procure inspiring photographs is always challenging: New Ravenna sells to a showroom, they usually work with a designer or architect, and then the product is sold to the home-owner. You can see that navigating this path could be cumbersome, so it is a treat when I get to lay my eyes on an installation of our work. There is a special place in heaven for showroom sales staff that email us photos of installed work!

Inside, they also recently updated the kitchen and included some of our water jet patterns:


Here's another novel application of mosaic: an inlaid water jet pattern in an island.


For a feature over the stove, they added a pattern that coordinates:



Next, they are renovating their master bath...I'll keep you posted!

Tips on Merchandising Tile and Stone

Or, Back in Black: Redecorating the Studio with Sara.

Mosaic factories by their very nature are dusty and full of clutter--all those little tiny pieces, everywhere. Because New Ravenna is located in the beautiful boondocks on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, we rarely get visitors--when we do, I usually whine out loud about the state of our display walls. But with 100 employees, and so much to do, I become oblivious to my worry as soon as the visitors leave and other priorities take precedence. Until recently, here is what visitors and employees were greeted by as they entered our factory (this is the left hand wall):

Not very inspiring, is it? For a while we even had a curtain jerry-rigged to the same wall for an impromptu photo shoot:

I'm not proud. However, one day after I broke two of our new un-cleated concept boards in half by trying to see them in relation to each other by balancing them on strips of cleating on a similar wall (they fell down of course), I just couldn't take it any more. AAAAHHHHHH. There wasn't a place anywhere in the factory where I could view new mosaic designs without being distracted by....clutter.

However, a miracle was about to occur.

I quickly devised a plan that involved a little paint and some shelving--this gets rid of the need for those pesky "cleats" on the back of concept boards that are so prevalent in tile and stone showrooms. In the space of just two days, my human resource director (and apparently, construction project manager) Mary Harris arranged for a wall to be painted black in what we call the "design center" (r and d headquarters--my usual hangout and the location of my office). Then we attached shallow walnut shelves to the wall, and voila:


Much better. Slight aside--these are some of the Beau Monde designs we produce for Ann Sacks. We had just finished recoloring many of them so alternate stone choices could be posted on their website. One of my favorite 14" boards is below--when you view the entire repeat, the roses are about 24" each:

Extremely ecstatic about our new display, I immediately started planning for the downstairs entry. We got a call that the Lieutenant Governor wanted to visit us, so that was the perfect excuse. You've seen the "before" shots--now here's a "during" view:

And here's the "after"!

Unfortunately we ran out of shelves until we build more. I inserted a silhouette so the scale is easier to understand. The doorway to the left is actually nine or ten feet tall, the doorway to the right about seven. Check out what it looks like with different boards and more shelves photo-shopped in...

Hallelujah.


P.S. Here's a section so you can easily have these shelves made. Simply bolt a ripped-down two by four to the wall, then take the sideways U of the shelf and screw through the top down into the two by four.

Modern Mosaics by Laura Gottwald

This is one talented woman.

Laura Gottwald is a designer who seems to know everyone. To call her a character is an understatement. We met through my dear friend Tucker Robbins at the Architectural Digest show a few years ago where she told me about a pietre dure line she was attempting to manufacture in India. Unfortunately, she was challenged by distance, stone variation, and very long time frames. Fast forward three years. Laura and I meet again, still no pietre dure line from India. However, this time I am able to offer our water jet technology which makes fabricating her designs infinitely easier. New Ravenna was able to send her prototypes within three weeks.

Stone Source has agreed to distribute them, and introduced them at ICFF this year. What do you think?

As you can see, Laura is a true modernist. These designs are intriguing individually, but it wasn't until I saw how they appeared when repeated that I really appreciated them:





Wouldn't they look great behind the front desk in a hotel lobby?
And look at what a difference the orientation of each approximately 6" x 12" unit makes (we will also be producing 12" x 24" units for Stone Source):


Even the simplest design "Groove" creates an incredibly sophisticated pattern when repeated:

Interior Design Magazine is featuring "Concentric" (below) in July--I haven't seen it yet, but we L-O-V-E Interior Design. Laura knows Cindy Allen (of course) and flagged her down at ICFF while promoting her line in the Stone Source booth.

This particular color combo is fairly expensive because of all the stone tile that is left over (not to mention Laura and I both adore expensive stone colors). So I came up with these two options that have no waste:


Of course at New Ravenna everything is made-to-order, so you can substitute any colors you like. Coincidentally, my nine-year old daughter (who swears she is going to be a designer when she grows up) presented me with this the other day:

I think Laura would be proud.

And the winner is...please vote

Two postings back I requested a name for our 2009 black, gray and shades of white collection. Did I ever mention how commitment-phobic I can be?

Since we're writing press releases for the collection, it seems that now would be a good time to settle on a name (duh). The two names I like the most via suggestions in the comments section of the blog or from emails and discussions in Kelly's pub are: Cimbrone, or Samsāra.

Kitchen and Residential Design blog guru Paul Anatar made the first suggestion saying, "How about Cimbrone? The Villa Cimbrone is now a grand hotel in Ravello but it started in the 11th century as a grand home. The Villa and the town it sits in is a one stop shop for the history of western art. Classical, Moorish, Renaissance, Baroque and Modern influences are all over the place and they compliment one another perfectly, just like your new collection." I checked out the website--and I'm ready to check in tomorrow, Paul. Also, in 1991 I was completely at a loss for what to name our first mosaic borders and ended up naming them after small towns in Italy. One of them was Ravello.

New Ravenna purchaser Karen Fowler suggested Samsāra: "These designs are all perfectly balanced, and have a Yin/Yang sort of feel to them- with their dual natures. I can't come up with any Buddhist/Eastern philosophy words other than Samsāra (cycle of reincarnation)." I think Samsara could work. It appeals to me because so much of design is simply a reincarnation and reinterpretation of previous work. Honoring the tradition that came before was the reason I chose New Ravenna as the name for our mosaic company so many years ago--Ravenna, Italy is known for it's amazing Byzantine mosaics, but we wanted to emphasize an American perspective, a new perspective, while revering the best of the old world.

Both of these names appeal to me. What do you guys think?