Colorist and designer Erin Adams says she’s usually about eight years ahead of her time.

But her recent use of Pantone’s Radiant Orchid in her New Ravenna collection of mosaics places her a mere two years out front.

“The public and I are getting closer,” she says about her prescient channelling of the 2014 Color of the Year.

The Erin Adams Collection features three designs that include the vibrant shade of purple: Daisies, Kente and Flowers. In each of the jewel glass mosaics, Adams has used deeper colors as contrast to the vivid hue.

“I’m not a pink person at all,” she says. “And lavender kept popping up.”

She’s a self-described ATM of color, one who spends all day coming up with products and designs. And she says she was slightly intimidated when Sara Baldwin of New Ravenna invited her to develop a collection for her mosaics company.

“I realized I’m not Sara and I’ll never be Sara – and that I have to be myself, whoever I am,” she says. “That means quirky and a little funky, happy and refreshing. It made me dig deep and celebrate who I am.”

Quirky is the operative word here. She thrives on it. The first product she ever produced for a client was returned to the company that commissioned it, because it wasn’t perfect.

“It was one of those revealing moments – I realized couldn’t make anything perfect because I’m not perfect,” she says. “If you want perfect, go to China. I established my aesthetic as whatever I am – it’s a little off, but it’s not sloppy.”

If it looks like it might have some mid-century modern roots, she comes by that authentically.

“I’m from a family of the arts, but I never wanted to be an artist,” she says. “My mother dragged us to museums and I didn’t want to go. Now Frank Stella’s work is coming out in me.”

In a quirky kind of way.

For more information on the Erin Adams Collection at New Ravenna, go to http://www.newravenna.com/erinadams_catalog/

For more information on Erin Adams, go to http://www.newravenna.com/designers/erin-adams-designer/

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