Meeting with Kiley Jacques of North Shore Magazine

We met with Kiley Jacques, managing editor at North Shore Magazine in our studio today. Nancy Barry, editor, sent her out to interview us for their upcoming Home issue. What a gem Kiley is, we enjoyed getting to know her as much as we appreciate the editorial coverage.

During our meeting Kiley asked me for a list of North Shore Designers with whom we have worked. Here are links to the designers we know, like and have collaborated with here on the North Shore of Boston.

Honey Collins - we have done everything from floors to Chinoiserie for Honey.

Inspired by Claude Lorrain

Swedish Chinoiserie

Sally Wilson and John Kelsey of Wilson Kelsey Design - Venetian plaster, murals, floor paintings and a Guinea Feather and Ikat wallpapered piano for 2013 "Play Me I'm Yours" street pianos.

Venetian Plaster (note lustrous reflection of door & floor in plaster on the left wall)

Michael Cebula - Michael has had us create themed murals, Venetian plaster, stenciling, glazes, grisaille, leaf, faux wood, faux grass cloth........

Boys Room

Girls Room

Wine Cellar

Palm Springs Golf Room

Amanda Greaves - We glazed the apse at St. John the Evangelist, Beverly, MA.

Gracyn Whitman of A CASA design - Chinoiserie.

Carpenter & MacNeille - Custom cabinet glazing.

Scott Clements of SR Clements Design - Murals, Chinoiserie, glazing, faux sycamore.

Faux Sycamore

 Julie Alvarez de Toledo - Panels, murals, glazing, trellis, faux marble, Chinois.....

Inspired by 18th century Swedish wallpaper at Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm

At the Danvers Historical Society's  Designers' Holiday Show House at Glen Magna Farm - Endicott Mansion, we had the pleasure of working along side several North Shore designers including Sandra Biondo, Yvonne Blacker, Michael Carter, Jennifer Dunn Coen, Caitlin Flynn, Linda Hentschel, Diana Kennedy, Elyse Parkhurst, William Ralph & Donna Terry.

Kathy Marshall - Venetian plaster - 25th anniversary "This Old House" Carlisle Show House.
Suzanne Carver - Panels, skies, glazing, plasters.

We have worked with Bruce Goddard & John Casey of Salem Interiors and John Brett Hill they have no web presence, old school.

And the following designers have asked us to look at projects, but we have not yet worked with them:
Lisa Kawski
Jeff Ferreira

That is our experience with Boston's North Shore designers. I was tempted to add many Boston and Cambridge designers but we are talking North Shore.

Bahamas, Sailing and Wallpaper

As some of you know, we have just returned from a month on a racing trimaran named Triad sailing around the Bahamas. The trimaran was designed by Dick Newick and it’s owner and our captain was Tom Robinson-Cox. We went for an adventure but my ulterior motive was to collect images for our ever-growing library of patterns and textures, not to mention Lena’s murals. Every time we would reach some uninhabited island, I would take the dingy ashore to see what shells or other interesting things I could find to photograph and every time Tom caught a fish, he is quite a predator, I would rush for my camera. The color of the water is impossible and the skies were incredible.

I don’t want to bore you with a lot of blah blah about our trip but I do want to show you the images I have processed so far and tell you what can be done with the resulting giclée wallpapers. I think this should be called the biophilia collection, a term coined by E.O.Wilson to describe man's need to connect with nature. Thanks for reminding me of that, Mark.

This detail of a pattern created from a photograph of the gill scales on a Mackerel. Each of these detail images represents an 11 x 8.5 inch piece of wallpaper. 

The reproduction size of these patterns varies enormously,  all our wallpapers are completely custom and made to order. The circle below, which represents the pattern from the detail above, can be printed larger than 6 feet. You can choose the repeat size and request color adjustment to fit your decor. You can even ask me to create something just for you, I relish the challenge.

Here is the pattern created by the Mackerel scales from a distance. It has a Moroccan feel to it. Note the difference in color and intensity between the pattern above and the circle - they are the same paper with different color / contrast adjustments.

This Pattern is from a paper we call the Margate Tartan (BA1071)

 Detail from the Margate Scales, this paper looks like a fine pencil drawing.

This paper can be printed in various color ways and styles. Here I used some of the darker scales, which resulted in a stripe.

And in this version I changed the color way and added even more to the stripe.

These stripes are also created from a Mackerel. The side of a Mackerel has a stripe down it and the scales are quite lovely. With she added repetition it takes on the characteristics of a slightly iridescent textile. The repeat on this is 26" x 12.5", making the big stripe 8" and the small one 5"

Stripe detail

This contemporary version of a Gothic cathedral ceiling is created from the fin of a Margate (BA1086), yet it makes one think of the celestial soaring of the great cathedral ceilings. This paper would be right at home in the visually stunning book, "Heavenly Vaults, From Romanesque to Gothic in European Architecture" by David Stephenson, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

 Skt. Mary's Church - Poland, 1292-1500

Amiens Cathedral - France, 1269

Up close on the Celestial Margate (BA1086) wallpaper, you can see the scales through the translucent fin and bubbles, giving it a confection like appearance .

I have not processed this photo yet to see if it will make an interesting wallpaper but there are so many I need to get to.

I did not expect to make a pattern with this photo of Sea Biscuits but Lena loved it so much, I went ahead. It could be layered like I did with the Sea Urchin wallpaper (from an earlier post). The Sea Urchin was sent to me by a friend in Maine last year. She collected it on the beach of North Haven Island & wondered if I could do anything with it. YESSSS!

These Urchins can be 24" across on your wall!

The Sea Biscuit was still dirty from sitting on the beach, which Lena thought added character to it.

A detail of some interesting coral I found on a sand bar at Hogsty Reef, a coral atoll which rises from 6000 foot waters

The pattern

And finally the impossible blue of the sea in the Bahamas. I am in the process of creating a seamless wall of water. Stay tuned for that.

In the next post I have some "modern art" wallpapers. Thanks for your interest, Doug

New Gicleé Wallpapers

We have created many new gicleé wallpapers that I would like to share with you. And remember, most of our murals are available as wallpaper for substantially less than creating an original mural from scratch.

From the Peabody Essex Museum collection:

    Dragons-4338PEM (Circa. 1730) 12" Repeat

    Liturgical Robe-4355PEM

    Silver-6179PEM (Circa. 1840)

I was asked by a New York design firm to come up with a Peacock tail feather wallpaper. They had found a paper with real Peacock feathers which sold for $4000 per panel. Here is what I came up with:

While I was at it, I did some experimenting with Guinea Hen feathers.

    Or one can make a pattern from the feathers.

Then I started experimenting with stone.

    Transenna-3716 (Circa. 800-850) Repeat 40"x24"

    Transenna-3717

Stone Barn in Connecticut 127" Repeat 108" High. 

    I can put a scene in the windows or remove them completely.

    Detail

And finally, a few things I was working on today.

Thanks for tuning in, send me suggestions, if you have any, please. All our best wishes for the holidays.

Celebrity Series 75th Season Gala

I recently posted about the piano we decorated for "Street pianos Boston". Last night at the Celebrity Series 75th Season Kick-off Gala, our piano was featured and played by many talented musicians. You can visit and play this musical work of art at the Christian Science Reading Room, 194 Massachusetts Ave Boston, MA. 

Robert Torres from the Celebrity Series of Boston took these great photos at the soiree.

Celebrity Series - "Street Pianos of Boston"

We were asked by Sally Wilson and John Kelsy of Wilson Kelsey Design to work with them to decorate a piano for Street Pianos of Boston, organized by the Celebrity Series of Boston. This is their 75 year and our piano will be played at the "75th Season Kick-Off Party", and will be auctioned. After much discussion about what to do with our piano I hit on the concept of covering the piano with feathers, Guinea Hen feathers to be exact. Sally and John added the idea of the Ikat runners on either side, cascading down and over the keyboard, surrounded by a gold stripe. Sally arranged for Dave Taubeneck of Fantastic Finishes to paint the piano in Benjamine Moore - Mink and prep the center with primer, to accept our wallpaper. Meanwhile I designed and printed the wallpaper. 

Below is a "sketch" of the imagined end result.

The design

Artist Luke Jerram has toured "Play Me, I'm Yours!" since 2008, placing pianos in public spaces for the enjoyment of the community. Play Me, I'm Yours! invites us all to engage with, and take ownership of our urban environment. 

The Guinea hen feathers

Zoë, our daughter, played many pianos during the "Play Me, I'm Yours" exhibit, while it was in London last year.

Ikat border

The wallpaper install went off with out a hitch and then Dave of Fantastic Finishes applied the final clear coat and reassembled the piano. Below Lena is adding gold Aqua Leaf to the edge of the border.

FINISHED!

Please look for and when possible play the pianos around Boston from September 27th through October 14, 2013. Best, Doug & Lena

Wallpaper Restoration

We were recently asked to restore and add color to an old wallpaper. This is not the first time we have done restoration work but it was an exciting opportunity to bring our own sense of color into the project & not just duplicate or repair / retouch an existing work. No one has, to date, been able to identify  the wallpaper pattern. If anyone reading this knows anything of it's origin, I would appreciate hearing what you know in the comments.

First, the paper had to be stabilized. Wallpaper installer Bill Archibald, of Norfolk, MA preceded us and was able to secure the peeling seams and inject paste into the bubbles. When we arrived the paper was ready for a clear acrylic coat to further fix the paper and give us something nonporous to paint on.

Before:

After:

I think you will all agree that the color and contrast is a vast improvement. Thank you for reading. 

Cheers, Doug

Edward Hopper style landscape

We are currently working in Mt. Kisco, NY, restoring a landscape mural in the style of Edward Hopper. This mural was painted in 1997 by Lena Fransioli (my wife) and Brooke Sheldon (Brooke Wilson then). A few years back the wall suffered water damage and unfortunately, the mural was not painted on canvas but directly on the wall. The home owner had a local artist repaint the damaged areas and the difference in style and color between the original and the repair needed correction. The attached photo is of Lena sketching back the original layout over the slightly changed repair. Small changes in the composition can make a big difference in the flow of the mural. This mural began as a tribute to Edward Hopper, making the emphasis on the diagonal essential.

More on the floor we did last week soon.