When trying to figure out how to prop our lovely Tamara panel for it’s close-up, I turned to my friend and marketing director Christine Campbell as I oftentimes do and said “Hey, what should we use on the console by the sink in front of the Tamara wall?”. She said, “There are some fig leaves out back again…”
We love that fig tree growing behind New Ravenna, as evidenced by these photos I’ve taken in the past few years:
However, the significance of using FIG LEAVES as props in a BATHROOM didn’t dawn on me until recently. “Ha Ha, Christine suggested fig leaves!!!” I said to my boyfriend Dave, who is always the first to make or get a joke, “Isn’t that hysterical?!?”. Completely blank look. “Seriously, you don’t GET it?” I insisted. Apparently not. “Fig leaves, in a bathroom, where you take off your clothes….”. OHHHHH he groaned. I can’t help it, my sense of humor is not very evolved I guess.
He suggested that if we wanted to make the reference more obvious, we should stack fig leaves on top of each other, as if they were ready and waiting for their own Adam and Eve(s).
:) From a practical standpoint, I doubt this photo will sell more mosaics, but we certainly were entertained for the afternoon.
Sara Baldwin
Exmore, Virginia, United States
New Ravenna Mosaics founder and Creative Director, Owner, Sara Baldwin Design, Bass guitar player, Envisioner, Appreciator of the Sublime and Ridiculous.
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Wow..being french, I didnt get the “figging” joke…so Thank you to Wiki…I did fig- urated out ! The marquis de Sade will have love this enter-taining post :))
Hello,
I found your great blog and wanted to ask a question about your 2009 post regarding the “flight in” new ravenna tile.
I am thinking about using this bird mosaic in my kitchen, but I can’t find any pictures online and the store that sells the tile said they haven’t seen it used in a kitchen (just a bathroom). I am wondering if you think it would work in a kitchen. I would love to take the leap of faith, but would love some feedback from someone who has done it! I have 2 walls – one long and one short and I was thinking of running statuary white marble up the back on the long wall and then doing the mosaic with either 3 or 5 birds on the short one using the same color marble for the background of the mosaic pieces. What do you think? Too much to have 2 back splashes, or OK?
Thanks for your time!
Heather
Hi Heather,
First of all, flight would look fabulous in a kitchen. It’s whimsical, but timeless.
Secondly, I don’t have a problem mixing slab with mosaic. In fact, one can set off the other in a synergistic way quite nicely! If you get cold feet, you could always just use plain mosaic texture like the background of flight with no birds on the long side. Or have your local waterjet person cut some bird silhouettes out of the short side slab and buy some birds from us! (Or if you can cut the slab down into pieces that are manageable–say no bigger than 4 sf–then we could cut them out for you.)
Good luck!
Sara
Hi Sara!
Thanks so much for commenting on my article! I know what you mean, I lived in my last house for 5 years before I did anything to it and I do know something about design!
BTW I love the tile featured in this post. They are just extraordinary!
Paula Grace ~
I also believe-the fig leaf was one of the first “toilet” papers to be used!
So-again. Perfect for the bathroom