Pamir, by New Ravenna Mosaics  Ikat jewel glass mosaic 

Pamir, by New Ravenna Mosaics  Ikat jewel glass mosaic 

Pamir, by New Ravenna Mosaics  Ikat jewel glass and mirror mosaic 

Weft, by New Ravenna Mosaics  Ikat jewel glass mosaic 

Loom, by New Ravenna Mosaics  Ikat jewel glass mosaic 

Driving through the ancient maritime forests of the Oregon Coast between Portland and Seattle there are any number of things to catch your eye.  The majestic hemlock trees, the stunning waterfalls, and yes, the enormous stockpiles of fire wood filling open barns everywhere.

These massive testaments to long winters and a strong Northwestern work ethic form gorgeous fields of browns, tans & grays.

Truman by New Ravenna Mosaics, stone mosaic

Just as the idea for this post about the appeal of woodpiles was forming, a text message from Sara Baldwin rang through.  It read simply “Heartwood” and included a picture she’d shot with her phone.  The photo was naturally of the woodpile near her sister Ellen’s house in New Hampshire .

This put a whole new spin on the concept and sent us looking for other examples of lumberjack couture.  And we were amazed by what we found. From conspicuous examples of sculpture to simpler field designs we found that there are arboreal artists among us who not only find inspiration everywhere, but also find ways to express that inspiration everywhere.

copyright unknown

If you’ve found a fabulous example of design unexpected please share it with us, and we’ll promise to keep doing the same.

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New Ravenna Mosaics has given Design Magnifique a sneak peek into some of the new collections launching over the next six months. Here are a few in the lineup, which I think are pretty spectacular.  Read original post…

Fiona from New Ravenna Mosaics, Jewel Glass and mirror waterjet mosaic

Paul Schatz for New Ravenna Mosaics, Granada stone waterjet mosaic

Erin Adams for New Ravenna Mosaics, Bottles Jewel Glass waterjet mosaic

New Ravenna Mosaics’ thanks Marilyn G Russell, ASID, NEWH, IIDA  of Design Magnifique for this post.

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Click here for the slideshow for a look at the designs.

Read more: http://www.dwell.com/articles/Coverings-2012-New-Ravenna-Tile.html#ixzz1uIwwfUCw

Erin Adams for New Ravenna Mosaics, Bottles in glass

Please visit Booth # 1464, Marble Systems    The Sara Baldwin Collection for Marble Systems will be available in all Marble Systems showrooms and through their huge network of independent flooring products distributors and dealers.

Marble Systems is a distributor of exquisite natural stone collections.
As a division of Tureks and the exclusive sales and distribution arm of the Tureks stone collection in North America, Marble Systems is a world leader for supplying marble, travertine, limestone, granite, slate, glass tiles and onyx to the world’s top designers, architects, contractors and developers.

Founded in 1982, Marble Systems was created by entrepreneurs driven by the true principles of business:Superior products, excellent quality and the highest levels of customer service.

Marble Systems has design centers in New York, Washington D.C., Florida and California, and a huge network of independent flooring products distributors and dealers.

In the last 90 days I’ve been lucky enough to trek to Turkey, Abu Dhabi, the Grenadines, Naples (Florida) and now Jupiter, Florida. Handsome boyfriend Dave is launching Coastal Kayaks, boats (and a brand) he helped design, so he’s making a Florida tour–and you know what that means for me–yes, a chance to escape to the land of Pina Coladas and warmth, if only for a weekend.

BMW M1 with the back hood open

At loose ends in Margaritaville,  we attended a local car show (check out the SuWEET BMW  M1 above). I don’t know about you, but until recently, old cars held absolutely zero interest for me. Ralph Lauren would wax poetic about his latest acquisition and I would… yawn. However–God  must have flipped a switch– now I am crazy about antique cars. Maybe it’s because my personal vehicles are both 12 years old and ready to enter an assisted living facility…

This photo is for my friend Margaret, who takes pictures of things that appear to have faces

A turquoise beast

Love this paint job

Check out the buttons to the left of the steering wheel

You will soon see I am slightly obsessed with hood ornaments; I can’t help it. I think it might stem from my search for a new vehicle and the realization that they all look the same.  Is this what automobile design has come to?  How depressing.

Bentley

At least half the old designs have wings

Historically, there are a preponderance and great variety of winged-naked-woman hood ornaments.  If I were in charge of hood ornament design, this theme would definitely change to winged-naked-men.

Classic Rolls Adornment

Recognize this one?

Classic Packard

Here we go again...

Buick hood ornaments echo torpedoes

Ford Model A--hood ornaments were originally radiator caps.

I snapped most of these shots, but for those of you who are interested there’s a wonderful website dedicated to Hood Ornament photographs here. Amazon also has several books for sale that chronicle their history, including designs by Lalique (a fox like the one below brought over 200k at auction last year!).

Rare Renard fox hood ornament for Rolls Royce

Given what you’ve just seen, how excited do you think I was when I found THIS at  my local antique store not even a week after returning?

 

After-market Mustang hood ornament

Out of all the hood ornaments in the world, you can imagine how thrilled I was to find a horse, one of my favorite animals, immortalized in this after-market Mustang embellishment. (I can’t get the song Mustang Sally out of my head ) But what does one DO with a small chrome sculpture? At New Ravenna there is only one place that it truly belongs…

  

"Silver" the truck

…on the company truck. Gary Harris, my warehouse manager (and husband to Mary Harris, human resource director) has now christened the truck “Silver”. :) I love it.

In these delicate and organic designs, representing growth and renewal,

the traditional bone and mother of pearl has been replaced with brilliant

jewel glass and natural stone.

Materials and Sources™ is a resource for building and finishing materials for

use in Residential and Commercial Architecture & Design. It is edited by Pat Anthony,

a former Architecture and Design Resource Librarian.

Fiona Jewel Glass Mosaic by New Ravenna Mosaics

Jacqueline Vine  Jewel Glass mosaic by New Ravenna Mosaics

Climbing Vine Jewel Glass mosaic by New Ravenna Mosaics

Little Lou and Thelma

She and her husband Gary had been to the Parksley Small Animal Swap. It’s held every month about a half hour north of New Ravenna in Parksley, Virginia. These goats very quickly gave birth to triplets:)

A month later she sent me this text message and photo: “Will b late baby chix r at post office”.

Yes, they arrived in a box, in the mail

Since then I’ve been blessed with real farm fresh eggs courtesy Mary and the girls.  Even though I grew up with chickens I had completely forgotten how ORANGE the yolks are in real eggs–and how DELICIOUS they are. I have not, however, forgotten how I hate shoveling chicken manure.

At the next animal swap she came home with Mr. Tom:

Mr. Tom in his kingdom--I think that's a goat behind him on the shed roof thing

I’ve always thought Turkeys were one of the God’s most beautiful creatures–Ben Franklin suggested that a turkey should be our national emblem, and I kind of agree with him. Wild turkeys especially are gorgeous. Have you ever looked closely at their plumage?

Since I’ve long been an admirer of fowl and feathers, it should come as no surprise that when Mary announced that the Small Animal Swap was happening this weekend I said, “Sign me up!  and put it on my calendar please.”

What a wonderful event. It was like stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting.

Typical scene from the Animal Swap

My daughter Gracie and I quickly ran into Kathy Cummings (she is an animal wildlife rehab person who works at New Ravenna–see blog post about her here) who alerted us to the existance of “fainting goats”. Apparently if you startle them, they fall down like they’re dead.

Upright fainting goats

What a lovely palette, right?  black, white, taupe, silver…

California Quail for sale--six bucks each!

These Calfornia Quail echo the same tones–this pic is terrible, so check out what I neglected to capture:

Much better photo of California Quail

Couldn’t you design an entire house around those colors? Sheesh it’s inspiring.

This sweet lop-eared bunny is also beautiful. Its ears measure 22″ from tip to tip!

Poor thing, I think it found a home today.

There were tons of roosters for sale–

How to carry your roosters

Gorgeous black rooster

English Fighting Cock

Bear-necked rooster--I was told you could train this one--to perch on your shoulder

Awesome (funky) chicken

Mary and Gary sold a couple of their roosters too–it’s tough to have more than one or two in a flock.  So for the first time, they ALMOST went home without a new member of the family…

Mary and Gary and new member of the family

At least this time I saw the acquisition in person! AWWWWWWW!

Sheep, more goats, ducks,

Quack Quack

a pot bellied piglet

Pot Bellied Piglet

even…puppies.  Grace spent most of her time cuddling Chesapeake Bay retriever pups that were only five weeks old.

Five week old Chesapeake Bay Retriever puppy

And then she put this handsome Black Lab in my arms…

Lab puppies for sale! 757-710-4530 (also Chesapeakes)

And I did not buy it!  No way can we fit another puppy into our lives right now. But boy was it tempting…

Thank you for sharing the newest Jewel Glass and Marble Mosaics.

See the press release.

See the album of images.

See the newest images from New Ravenna Mosaics.