A Brizo Thursday

So I made it to New York this afternoon and after a two year absence, it's really good to be back here. I always forget just how much I like how this city feels. It has an effect on me and all I need to do is see the skyline from across the East River. That first time the city comes into view just does something to me. I feel instantly smarter and more successful. It's an odd thing.

I'm here as the guest of Brizo as I've been saying for the last couple of weeks. They've put me in a great hotel in Murray Hill, the 70 Park Avenue Hotel. The 70 Park Avenue is a smaller boutique hotel, and a lovely one at that. There are Frette sheets on the bed behind me and believe me, they are calling.

I'm here with a small group of designers and architects from around the US. We spent the afternoon getting to know one another a bit and then meeting with the Brizo product development and marketing teams. All of us who are participating have a vested interest in understanding one another and it's really cool to be a part of this group. We've been given the chance to see into the process of how Brizo gets an idea for a fixture and how that idea becomes a faucet. It's fascinating stuff and I could spend the next few days talking to the industrial designers in particular. They work in an environment of ideas and they love their work, that much is obvious. Listening as they traced back the allusions, homages and influences that went into the fixtures I already know was captivating. These people travel the world, looking for shapes and trends and inspiration and then they take all of those disparate images and distill them into a single shape. It's heady stuff, and pure design. Where all of this is heading next is jaw-dropping. Keep your eyes on this brand, trust me on that.

Following the process of going from an Erte illustration to the RSVP faucet above is a wild ride and after having been granted a glimpse into the process I can see the finished product in different light. This synergy of art and commerce, of elevating an everyday object to the status of an icon, is some pretty cool work and I'm thrilled to meet the people who do just that as their life's work.

New Ravenna's Beau Monde

New Ravenna Mosaics fabricates the newly expanded Beau Monde line for Ann Sacks. The great Sara Baldwin, who is the heart and soul of New Ravenna, has a run-through of the collection on her blog, Sara Baldwin Design. Reading Sara's stories behind the patterns and getting a glimpse of her motives and inspirations adds a significant dimension to this work. These patterns harness the vocabulary of natural stone and make it sing.

Look over New Ravenna's entire collection on their website, they are in a class apart. No one can make stone and glass look like this. After you look over their collections, read Sara's blog. I always learn something about both the designs and the woman behind them and that's a welcome thing indeed.

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today

I am en route to New York this morning and I'm planning to continue posting while I'm gone, though my schedule will be pretty erratic. I'll have plenty to write about.

I have meetings with the product development and marketing folks from Brizo this afternoon and evening, I'm going to GE Monogram's flagship showroom In the A&D Building tomorrow morning and of course the Jason Wu runway show tomorrow afternoon. On Saturday I've arranged a studio visit and interview with the great mosaic artists Angele and Yakov Hanansen and then a walk down the new High Line with my great friend Tom. Throw in some great dinners with friends in the city and this has all the makings of a productive and eventful weekend in the City. Avanti!

Congratulations Julie Richey!

for immediate release............September 9, 2009 ORSONI PRIZE 2009 International Award for Mosaic Fine Art WINNERS

Julie Richey Grand Prize Night Shirt Night Shirt detail Magda Busetto Honorable Mention Occhio Orsoni Smalti Veneziani Kate Kerrigan Finalist Rainy Day Central Park Greg Haas Finalist Blue Wave Angela Staehling Finalist Coraux Rouges

Venice, Italy..............Orsoni Smalti Veneziani is proud to announce the winners of the Orsoni Prize 2009, the International Award for Mosaic Fine Art. The Grand Prize has been awarded to Julie Richey for her sculptural work, Night Shirt.  Richey will receive Euro 1,000 and a trip to Venice, Italy to attend a 1 week Master in Mosaic workshop at Orsoni. Her award winning mosaic will be exhibited at the Angelo Orsoni Gallery.

The jurors,  Lucio Orsoni, Honorary President, Angelo Orsoni and  Pino Bisazza, President, Trend Group chose Night Shirt because of the artist's exceptional success in depicting an "atmospheric landscape of pure poetry that harmonizes with sculptural form of the clothing."   

Honorable Mention was awarded to Magda Busetto for creating the "the startling effect of being watched." Busetto will receive 3 kilos of Orsoni 24 k gold mosaic. In addition 3 Finalists were named, Kate Kerrigan, Greg Haas and Angela Staehling. Each of these artists will receive 1 kilo of Orsoni 24k gold mosaic.

 This year 98 submissions were received from 15 countries. All submissions will be posted on the Orsoni web site www.orsoni.com in October. The biennial prize will be offered again in 2011.

Orsoni Smalti Veneziani has been producing smalti and 24 k gold mosaic since 1888 in the Cannaregio district of Venice, Italy. In 2008 Orsoni was awarded the Premio Firenze Donna, Italy's prestigious cultural award.

The Master of Mosaic workshops located at the foundry are taught by Maestra Antonella Gallenda throughout the year. Participants stay at Domus Orsoni, the enchanting bed and breakfast located steps away from the mosaic studio.   

Have you seen back-painted glass?

I had a conversation over the weekend with someone who couldn't decide on a back splash material. Her kitchen's beautiful, and modern. It's a symphony of horizontal planes and sleek surfaces. I love it. Despite my growing reputation as the mosaic guy, when I first saw the space a mosaic isn't what popped into my head. Instead of a mosaic, I suggested that she consider sheets of back-painted glass.

Back-painted glass is exactly what it sounds like it would be. It's a sheet of 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" or 3/4" thick clear glass. The back of the glass is painted and then baked on. As a result, you look through a layer of clear glass at a color in the back. It's a terrific effect, the color appears to float.

Glass comes in 130" x 84" sheets so it's very possible to cover whole areas with seamless glass. Sometimes, back-painted glass gets installed as smaller panels, but that's almost always an aesthetic call.

The photos scattered across this post are from Soda Glass, a northern California coated glass manufacturer. They have retailers in San Francisco and in Sacramento. Other manufacturers and suppliers across the US, Canada and Europe are plentiful. Nothing else looks or behaves like this material. I cannot for the life of me imagine it in anything but a really minimalist setting. Am I wrong?