I showed you Cowsablanca, the La Jolla Cow Parade cow that our local IDAL chapter, Artisans by the Sea,  painted using some of our new Modello patterns about a month ago.  Well, here she is strutting her stuff out on the street.

modello-cow-1

modello-cow-2

modello-cow-3

modello-cow-4

She CAN be bought, you know…..all the cows will be auctioned off in a couple of months.

March 30th, 2009

Art from Floor to Ceiling

We’ve recently completed a rather large project here in our long neglected lunch room: a decorated coffered ceiling. Actually, it’s NOT completed as now I want to add wood detailing and pattern to the beams, but that’s for another day, week, month.  There are 15 different coffers, and naturally, I wanted a different pattern for each one, so scoured my design books for my favorite allover tile designs. We have now added these to the Modello line of decorative masking patterns and they come from historical patterns from Spain, Portugal and Cuba. I’ve mentioned before how much I LOVE tile patterns. Feeling rather lazy efficient about the whole thing, I decided to forego applying them directly to the ceiling and did them on the Roclon canvas that we sell instead. This way, they could be done easily and in a production style on our studio tabletops and installed with heavy duty wallpaper past on the ceiling when completed.

skimstone-troweling

I used SkimStone for this project-a trowel-on product actually designed for resurfacing concrete floors, but that also works great on the Roclon for wall and ceiling panels. I love the color range and look of this product so much!

skimstone-weeding

Here is a panel in progress with the pattern now being removed.  As these patterns would be great for floors, countertops and tabletops I decided to photograph them as they might look when used for that application….

ornall129-3

ornall125-3

ornall127-1

ornall124-2

ornall122-3

ornall120-1

ornall116-1

 

 

ornall131-1

And here they are on the ceiling! Great thanks to the girls of the West Coast Artisans Guild for their help on this project.

installed-modello-canvases

installed-modello-canvas-2

New allover tile Modello patterns here.

March 26th, 2009

New Moroccan Stencils

I’ve been scooped! The lovely Emily over at wideopenspaces ran a blog post about our new Moroccan stencils before I did! Not that I mind….I’m thrilled. See the post here and another great one featuring more Moroccan design here. I LOVE this photo she found showing large Moroccan arches on a wall.

moroccan-arches

You could totally do something grand and bold like that with a large Modello pattern and paint! Below is a sneak peek at some of our new Moroccan stencil patterns that we have on the Royal Design Studio stencil website.

moroccan-sencil-collection_

These new stencils come from the recent painting project that we did for Maryam’s Peacock Pavilions.

moroccan-sencills-2

They are available NOW at special pricing of 10% off. We also have a FREE SHIPPING special going until April 15th on orders of $100 and above. Just enter FREESHIP in the promo code box on checkout.

March 25th, 2009

West Coast Artisans Guild

west-coast-artisans-guild

A very special group of women (and my friends!) have recently banded together here in San Diego to form the West Coast Artisans Guild. Their goal is to network to the local design community, support each other on large projects, and enhance San Diego residences and businesses with gorgeous decorative and patterned finishes. They have been SO helpful to me in getting some recent large projects done around our offices, studio and showroom. I’ll be sharing more on these finished project soon, but here they are….

julie-modello-studio

..limewashing….

karen-troweling-modello

…troweling

kate-pulling-modellos

…pulling Modellos….

karen-moroccan-modello

..coloring….

vicki-royal-design-stencil

..stenciling….

karen-royal-design-stencil

and glazing!

Thank you Julie, Vicki, Kate, Sheri, Emma and most especially Karen (who now “owns” our studio bathroom!!)

March 23rd, 2009

Painting Play Date

Carol Leonesio, who has her very own Painter Girl blog, also write for the Stencil Talk blog over at www.stencilsearch.com sent me a lovely email today about a “play date” that was arranged in her area to gather together local decorative artists for sharing creative inspiration, potential projects and mutual support. This is such a great idea in this day and age when we all need a little “extra” from our friends! We have a similar group that has formed here in San Diego that I’ll tell you about in my next post, but meanwhile, check out Carol’s post about their creative learning and sharing day spent working on some marquetry techniques and samples that they got from Modello Designs.

modello-marquetry-quilt

`modello-marquetry-borders

I feel very honored that they chose to use our products for their first get together. Thanks for YOUR support girls!

March 21st, 2009

In need of plushie

Too much cable news channel watching has me in a super funk. I want to go back to a more innocent, simpler time. Like  when I was 3.

plushies

Assorted adorable plushies from various Etsy shops.

March 17th, 2009

Just My Type

One of the projects that I worked hard on but didn’t get to do in Marrakech was some artful typography that was designed for some poolside lounge chairs. Not being one to let some good work go to waste, we’ve now added a Typography area to our Modello website Design Library. Some of the typography panels just happen to be perfectly sized for our interior doors here….

modello-typography-1

modello-typography

These are the two bathroom doors off our main “Gallery” hallway, the one where the painted ceilings are. We painted them in colors to match, and, not only do the individual doors look great but they really tie this space together! I’ve never been into the painted quotes on a wall so much, but am very excited about playing with and creating more interesting typography applications for interiors. Sigh. So many ideas, so little time……

March 15th, 2009

Cowsablanca

I’ve lately been MIA while teaching and working like mad to get the studio ready for an event this weekend….PLUS, I finally had my version of WordPress updated after 4 years and trying to figure out the new bells and whistles. OK, the truth is I didn’t WANT to have to figure it out so have been avoiding it. I can see that they’ve made some improvements, but it seems a lot more complicated. Maybe it’s just my overloaded, befuddled brain….Meanwhile, our local IDAL painting chapter Artisans by the Sea has taken up cow painting (not to be confused with cow tipping).  You see, they are participating in a Cow Parade, the world’s largest public art project.

cow-parade-9

cow-parade-4

My friend and fellow Morocco traveler, Vicki Shultz, designed the cow based on a, ta da, Moroccan theme. Cowsablanca. Get it? :) . She’s been guiding some of the women in the group to get the cow ready for it’s big debut. They used some of our new Moroccan Modello patterns for the patchwork pattern, so I stopped by to see how it was going and admire all the other cow cuties…..

cow-parade-8

LOVE the matador cow!

cow-parade-6

and this pretty face…

cow-parade-7

the “tribal” cow…

cow-parade-5

these colorful snouts….

cow-parade-2

and these hot legs. I’m waiting for the final photos of the Cowsablanca cow with her “jewelry” on to post that. The Moroccan-inspired Modellos that were used are available here on the Modello Designs website. The mylar stencil versions are now available at Royal Design Studio. Cow not included.