Paint by Stone
Lodestar Statements in Stone proprietor Stewart Ritwo uses a palette of 75 semiprecious stones to create custom mosaic designs for floor medallions and borders, wall panels, countertops and backsplashes, vanity tops, and furniture tops.
Ritwo works with clients or their architects to design a custom piece based on the client’s ideas or sketches. Using stones to “paint” an array of designs, he says, each project’s goal is to create a piece that will work with the client’s décor and color scheme. After drawings of the design are approved, Ritwo provides clients with colored drawings and samples of the stones he will work with.
All stones are hand-cut, hand-polished, and hand-set, then sealed to protect them from cleaning agents, dirt, and stains. The final piece, says Ritwo, “is installed as any other marble or granite slab would be installed on the floor, or in the wall, or as a vanity.” Most pieces can be installed by the builder. 212.755.1818.
Catch the Wind
As a young boy, weather vane craftsman Anthony Holand of Tuck and Holand spent his summers on a farm teaching himself how to weld scrap metal pieces together into found-art objects. Now Holand’s clients frequently come to him with their own ideas for weather vanes, ranging from original concepts to requests for reproductions.
Each piece is heated, quenched, and hammered by hand, then brazed together into the final shape. Holand’s shop produces anything from blue crabs to dragons, dancing frogs to dinosaurs.
What most people don’t realize about weather vanes, he says, is that the back of the piece needs to have more surface area to catch the wind, because weather vanes point into the wind, not away from it. 508.693.3914. www.tuckandholand.com
Turning Heads
The woodworkers at Pagliacco Turning & Millwork specialize in historic restoration of solid wood architectural components. Using a catalog of traditional patterns as a starting point, or designing a piece from the ground up, Pagliacco’s staff can create nearly any profile. “Whatever it is a client wants,” says co-owner Steve Evans, “we can figure out a way to make it.”
Evans works in Western red cedar, but redwood, mahogany, and most other woods are also available.
Components are delivered unprimed, however all end grains are sealed to prevent checking and moisture loss. 415.488.4333. www.pagliacco.com
Modern Frescoes
In Cesar Color’s GlassFresco process, architects, designers, and artists can laminate their works or designs to glass panels that can then be used for wall panels, shower enclosures, room dividers, freestanding accents, doors, furniture and more.
Cesar Color’s design department works with clients to determine the type of glass necessary for each project, digitally render designs, then bond a digitally printed thermal plastic interlayer with the design between two lights of glass. When the glass is laminated in this process, it meets safety glass requirements.
GlassFresco’s dye transfer process is exact, according to the company, and allows designs to be repeated side by side with no misalignment at the edges.
