A new idea in sinks from Blanco

That is a drop-in sink not a flush-mount. It's Blanco's new MicroEdge™ sink and it just won an honorable mention in KB+B's Product Innovator Awards for 2009. Blanco's MicroEdge™ was one of nine products named as a stand out for the year.

Since the advent of undermount sinks ten years ago, nobody's really done anything with drop-in sinks. That was until Blanco took another look at them and decided that the traditional drop-in kitchen sink needed a face lift. So Blanco developed a 1.25mm thick sink rim and called it MicroEdge™.

Drop-ins are usually less expensive to deal with and if you're replacing an existing sink, you options have always been limited to the traditional 17- to 18-gauge stainless steel the rest of the sink was made of. Blanco found a way to make the transition from an 18-gauge stainless bowl to a 1.25mm rim. Pretty slick!

Go to Blanco's website to see their complete collection.


In other departments, Blanco started a company blog recently and it's called Blanco by Design. On it you can find last minute updates on Blanco products as well as items of interest to the kitchen and bath world. To quote from their new site:

BLANCObydesign.com provides a forum for homeowners, kitchen and bath design profesionals, BLANCO representatives and showroom sales associates to exchange information. Here you’ll discover the latest product news, program introductions, support tools, sources of inspiration, design ideas and more.

BLANCObydesign.com will also create a channel to lend your voice to the BLANCO community. Just hit the Comments link to share new ideas, or anything that’s on your mind. Your contributions are the key to making this blog successful for all.

The center tab on Blanco by Design's page is something called the Blanco Design Council. Blanco's Design Council is intended to be a group of professionals who've been brought on board to lend a hand and an ear to Blanco's new undertaking. At the top of that list you'll find yours truly.

So bravo to Blanco on the recognition awarded to MicroEdge™ and three cheers for wading into the world of Social Media.

Tile wallpaper by Trend USA

Who says mosaic tile is only for back splashes and shower floors? Not me. And neither do the folks at Trend USA. Trend has a series called wallpaper tile and within the series are four separate collections. There are hundreds of variations on these themes available and any one of them would be a great idea for an accent wall.

Think about it, why not a 5/8" mosaic tile in glass instead of a coordinated paint color for an accent? Wouldn't it be cool to get pattern into a room from a source where no one ever thinks to look? I say yes, emphatically. Here are some highlights from Trend USA's Wallpaper Collection.

Pretty neat stuff and definitely not what most people will think of when the phrase "tile wall" gets uttered. What do you think? Would you ever use a geometric, floral or damask mosaic pattern in your own home?

Announcing the February release of the 2010 edition of Mosaic Art Now

Mosaic Art Now is an arts annual devoted to the promotion of fine art mosaics. It's also a project very near and dear to my heart. The editors of Mosaic Art Now; Bill Buckingham, Nancie Mills-Pipgras and Michael Welch, recently announced the 15 February shipping date of the much-anticipated 2010 edition of the publication.

The 2010 edition is twice as large as last year's, a feat all but unheard of in the world of print publications. The strength of this year's edition is a testament to both the commitment of MAN's editors, and the depth of worldwide participation and interest in fine art mosaics.

The new issue is filled with feature stories by such luminaries as JoAnn Locktov, Sonia King, Laurel True, Jennifer Blakebrough-Raeburn and some guy named Paul Anater. There's an artists' marketplace, guest commentaries, new discoveries and the truly exceptional Exhibition in Print. The cover art this year is Morning by Ann Gardner and photographed by Lisa Jacoby.

To whet your appetite; Nancie, Bill and Michael have made available Jennifer Blakebrough-Raeburn's Five Sisters: Vitae Summa Brevis as a .pdf for preview. In her article, Jennifer tells the story of Emma Biggs and Michael Collings' installation in York St. Mary's, a deconsecrated medieval church in northern England. Emma Biggs used 13th and 14th century pot shards to create her site-specific mosaics and the effect is as ephemeral as it is inescapably human. Give it a read and know that Jennifer's article is but a taste of wonders that await in 2010's Mosaic Art Now.

You can order a copy of the new publication now and it will ship on the 15th. Shipping is the same for multiple copies, so gang your orders. Last year's issue sits proudly on the end of my coffee table and I'm looking forward to having 2010's issue to sit next to it.

And yes, you read that right a couple paragraphs back. "Some guy named Paul Anater" wrote a feature story for the new issue. It was my great pleasure to meet with and interview Yakov and Yulia Hanansen, two amazing mosaicists who happen to be father and daughter. On a dreary Manhattan Saturday morning, I sat in Yakov Hanansen's studio and we talked for hours about art and life. I ended up learning how to make my own tesserae that day. Yakov sat me at his hardie (a stump with a special chisel fitted into it), handed me a martellina (that's a hammer shaped to make tesserae specifically) and I was on my way.

Talk about a hands-on education. If you've read this blog before, then you know that I am an enthusiastic supporter of fine art mosaics. My involvement with Mosaic Art Now is dream come true in many ways and I am as grateful as I am humbled to be counted as a contributor to this fine publication. Now go buy an issue. Here's the link.

Winter turns to summer with the Smitten Kitchen

Ahhhh, January. In my part of the world, January means warm, sunny afternoons and cool nights. Winter for us is what spring is for people in cooler climates and it's also when citrus fruits come into season. By now, Florida grapefruit and oranges ought to be trickling into grocery stores all over the place and we're up to our elbows in them. I'm not complaining. We get the pick of the litter and most of the specialty citurs fruits that grow here never make it out of Florida. Minneolas, honeybelle tangerines, kumquats, key limes, meyer lemons, bitter oranges, blood oranges, clementines, mandarins, and the list goes on. I could live on local citrus fruit and die a happy man.

A cooking blog I like to read is Smitten Kitchen, written by Deb and Alex Perelman. Deb's a chef's chef and she prepares her delicacies in a 46 square foot kitchen on New York's Upper West Side. I love her take on food. She doesn't believe in fuss or unnecessary complication, she's about flavor and hospitality instead. Her recipes prove beyond a doubt that great food isn't dependent on fancy equipment or posh ingredients. Great food is an attitude as much as anything.

Anyhow, Deb and Alex featured a recipe that I'll be having for lunch today. I'll let you know how it goes. Here's the recipe.

Mixed Citrus Salad with Feta, Onion and Mint

3 to 4 tablespoons red onion, cut into tiny bits
4 pieces of citrus, preferably a mix of grapefruits and oranges but use what you can get, and what you like to eat (spoiled by the spread at the store, I used 1 pink grapefruit, 1 cara cara and 1 blood orange, and 1 mineola)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 to 4 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) feta cheese, chopped or crumbled
1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped or cut into tiny slivers

Place your red onion in the bottom of a medium bowl. Nest a strainer over the bowl.

Prepare your citrus fruits by beveling the stem end of one, cutting enough off that you reveal the pith-free flesh of the fruit. Repeat on the other end. Rest your fruit on one of its now-flat surface and begin cutting the peel and pith off in large, vertical pieces. You want the fruit’s exterior to be “white”-free.

Turn the fruit back on its side and cut it into 1/4-inch thick wheels, removing any seeds and thick white stem as you do. Place the wheels and any collected juices from the cutting board in the strainer over the bowl with onion. Repeat with remaining citrus fruits. (As the extra juices drip over the bowl, it will soften the raw onion bite.)

Spread the fruit slices out on a platter. Scoop out the onion bits (a slotted spoon or fork does the trick) and sprinkle them over, leaving the juice in the bowl. Whisk one tablespoon of juice (this is all I had accumulated) with red wine vinegar or lemon juice, Dijon and olive oil. Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Drizzle the dressing over the citrus, sprinkle with feta and mint, adjust salt and pepper to taste, serve immediately and daydream of warmer places.

Recipe and photos from Smitten Kitchen

It's a light! It's a speaker! It's both?

Check it out. These rooms have speakers in the ceiling and they're fully visible in these photos.

That living room and that kitchen have Klipsch's new LightSpeaker System installed.

The LightSpeaker System is a wireless speaker and a LED can light in one. That's a pot light for my Canadian readers. Most interestingly, they work as a retrofit. There's no wiring involved.

I'd be curious to see what the temperature of the light produced is. It's a great idea frankly, and I'd love to hear from anybody who has these fixtures installed. They are available directly from Kipsch's website. Kudos to Klipsch!