Mosaic designer Paul Schatz is no stranger to New Ravenna.
Or for that matter, to Architects + Artisans.
We’ve been writing about both for years. And now, the symbiotic relationship between Schatz and New Ravenna’s new creative director, Cean Irminger, has yielded 20 new mosaic designs for the Miraflores Collection.
Typical of his work, the new designs are classical, inspired by Schatz’s worldwide travels – and meant to complement any architect’s intent. Their origins may have come from his own fertile imagination, but they’re also the product of a collaborative and fruitful relationship with Irminger.
“One thing is that she doesn’t have is restrictions – she’s someone who has imagination for that company, and she’s done all kinds of crazy stuff,” he says. “She’s free in terms of thinking, and ego-free also, and she enjoys life and her family and her employees – all are very important parts of that company.”
A couple of years back, he brought her some ideas, then recently arrived on site on the Eastern Shore of Virginia to discuss them and take a look at materials, like basalt, sea glass and sandstone.
“Basalt is one of the new products they have been using for the last year or so, and the sea glass is tumbled so it looks like the glass that’s washed up on shore – I like the aqua colors,” he says. “There’s sandstone too, some that looks like petrified wood and has the coronel pattern – so you wonder: ‘Is it wood or stone?’”
Then there are ceramics, three inches thick, cut with water jets. And 24-carat gold for a modern touch, though Schatz says the ancient Italians freely used it too.
It’s all meant for indoor or outdoor installations. Outside, that means fountains and swimming pool linings. Inside, they could be used on floors, backsplashes and walls as well. “My grandmother had a piece of crocheted lace that was always on top of a table, and I started looking at that kind of pattern, and I’m doing it on a bath in luxury home on the floor,” he says. “You can walk on it in your bare feet.”
The more you use it, he contends, the better the experience. “I like to do it from the countertop to the ceiling so the scale of the pattern really shows,” he says.
His designs are about history and classicism and architecture and patterns. With New Ravenna, he’s found a partner who understands it all.
For more, go here.
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