If you ever want to get really excited and inspired about tiled surfaces, check out Walker Zanger. They have a beautiful online catalog to browse through, but I highly recommend ordering the printed one (new one coming out soon!). The interior photos are to die for, and their tile applications are highy varied and always gorgeous.

I especially love the patterned tiles, of course! In the Venezia series they use a waterjet process to carve in designs that are then hand colored….

or stained. You can use Modello patterns to achieve similar, custom effects on limestone and travertine tiles.

These tile samples were done in my last Floor Focus class, using a combination of Modello Dye Stains and Stain and Seal colors. The patterns can be etched into the surface by mechanical means (sandblasting) or by a chemical etching process.

They are then colored with the pattern still in place and/or given an allover toning. This pattern is from our Ornamental Tile series. I love how each one turns out completely differently as it takes on the natural characteristics of the individual stone tiles.

I had the great pleasure of meeting and lunching with one of our favorite customers (and a Featured Artist in Modello by Design) on Friday: Robbie Calvo.

Robbie was on the West coast for meetings in LA regarding his new design show “pitch” to the decorating networks. We got to see the 5 minute piece that showcases his concept and creative abilities. I truly don’t have time to watch many of these shows (and frankly they all tend to look the same) but Robbie’s is definitely a “cut above” in taste, style, and approach to most of the shows out there. An accomplished musician, he incorporates his composing abilities into his room design, focusing first on the rythm (the foundation walls, floors, etc), then the harmony (main pieces like furnture) and finally the melody (accessories and assorted fluff). During the process, he also composes a short piece of music to compliment the room design. It is REALLY good!
 

Shown above is the room that was used for the decoration in “the pitch” and, let me tell you, it looks even better on film.

Robbie has been so generous to create a wonderful page on his website talking about his association with Modello Designs and we are happy to sponsor his success AND his upcoming show. He’s a truly talented and humble person who deserves all the success that will be coming his way. I can’t wait to watch more!

It’s been a couple of weeks ALREADY since my trip to the SALI show to teach and exhibit. I’m very happy to report that it was a great show and a good turning point in this organization that I have belonged to for almost 25 years. The Stencil Artisans League, Inc. is NOW, ta da, the International Decorative Artisans League. I strongly feel that the future of the organization hinges on embracing the future and the full spectrum of decorative arts, both in action and in name. I lobbied for and served as the Committee Chair overseeing the name change, so YEAH! It’s done. The new website is here at decorativeartisans.org.

Charleston, NC is SUCH a cool town, even when its 95 degress with 100% humidity! Some of us got the got a chance to get into town a few times for the requisite carraige ride around the historic district and multiple trips to some amazing restaurants including my favorite-S.N.O.B.

The booth was planned to be “easy” this year (as opposed to hauling half the warehouse there) and I have to thank my friends Barb Skivington, Becky Roth and Jackie Wiggins for all their help in setting up and manning the booth with me.

As usual, I forgot to take any pics with my own camera and have to depend on the kindness of companions for even the few photos shown here. My friend Helen Morris, of the Stenciled Library, however, has some really great photos posts on the convention and Charleston here on her blog! I think she really captures the magic of Charleston. Next years convention site? Memphis!

Ooh! Almost forgot. Thanks also to the 40 people that took my Faux Marquetry classes there! I just got the teacher evaluations in the mail yesterday and received 39 “Excellent” reviews. My apologies to the person who wasn’t 100% happy with the class. I really enjoyed teaching it and sharing the Marquetry Techniques.

Back in the day, I used to do a LOT of travel teaching at studios around the country. These days, with two companies to run I seem to need to be close to home as much as possible to manage people/projects/problems and there just isn’t the time to travel around the country, although I get a LOT of people inquiring about classes that they can take from me closer to home (as in the East Coast). Well, if you are one of those people, here’s an opportunity!

I will be exhibiting and teaching at the Decorative Arts Show in Atlantic City in a few short weeks, if you want to head down to “the shore” and stroll the boardwalk, smell the salt air, and immerse yourself in decorative art!!. It should be a beautiful time of year. I have always loved being at the shore AFTER Labor Day.  We will have a booth in the Expo on Sept 10-11. I will also be teaching a two-day class entitled “6 Highly Sellable Finishes” there on Sept 12-13. Samples of the techniques and boards we will be doing follow:

I have changed the sample lineup a bit from what was first published to make it a little “fresher” with some newer techniques. After seeing the response to some of the newer finishes at the IDAL Convention I think that these will be very popular, AND they really offer a good range of different products, designs, and techniques.

Please note: ALL registration is through the Decorative Arts Show! Maybe I’ll see you there? OR maybe in San Diego?

I spend probably WAY too much time engaged in random googling and assorted web surfing….BUT, it’s all good. Recently, while searching the term “stencils” on Etsy I can across this intriguing shop KMStitchery She specializes in “eco-friendly feminist fashion”, designing and cutting her own stencils (cool!) of prominent feminist icons and painting them on recycled clothing. I had to feature this because a) it’s stenciling, and b) I love this women’s attitude!

She has a blog here. Good point about American Apparel. Their ads are seriously creepy! Bleeech!

Recently on Muralsplus, a message board that I help moderate, there was a discussion about faux and decorative finishing as “art”. Well, of course it’s always been art, silly, but recently more and more decorative artists are applying their ideas and techniques to “wall art”: canvases, framed boards, tapestry hangings and such. In fact, I don’t know too many decorative finishers these days who don’t dream about coming down off their ladders to create cool, creative stuff in the comfort of their studios while wearing their jammies. That’s MY dream, for sure!

Well, one of our customers, April Everhart of Wallexpress in North Carolina decided to start working towards that dream after I mentioned Etsy as a great place to sell her canvas art.

April has a new shop, Wallexpress, that features her canvases that incorporate stenciling, raised freeform pattern and lots of cool finishes. Best of luck April!

Here is the last in the series of new panels I’ve been showing you in the two previous posts. This first one is my favorite of the bunch, I think. I don’t want to make the other patterns jealous, but I just am REALLY in love with this one.

It started with this inspiration-a tabletop photographed at ABC Carpet&Home in NYC, a veritable treasure trove of inspiring things to photograph (and maybe to even buy!)

I did an “embroidery” version of one of our new Architectural Panel patterns to get the look of the lines that seem to be carved into the surface (one of my new little tricks). I am going to add this finish to my Boho Modern Workshop and will be doing some new Modello Master Method instructions for many of these.

I can tell you that it is done with Fresco Paint from Safra. This is a paintable and trowelable product that doesn’t have any binders in it, allowing you to easy rub back through top layers to reveal other color layers below. Once it is sealed with wax or water-based varnish, though, it becomes totally durable. I think our Break Room kitchen cabinets are going to be getting treated to this!

This Fabric Damask pattern is blown way up. Each repeat is about 4′ high. I think everyone is loving the larger-scaled designs right now!

We used some new metallic plasters on the market and layered HiLite (interference) colors over it. Then, a good healthy layer of stain to patinate it. I’ll be sharing more of this later….

This one uses one of our new Silhouette patterns along with metallic foils, paints and embedded lace. I’ve never been brave enough to tackle an embedded lace treatment on a whole wall, but limiting it to a smaller design area makes it pretty darn easy.

I love the little birdhouse detail. Wouldn’t this be sweet in a nursery??

OK, it’s time to introduce round 2 of the new canvases of finishes I created in the last couple of weeks for the SALI show. Barring any Fedex disasters, these will return to hang in the long corridor that separates the two sides of our building. I have always envisioned it as a “gallery” space, so am looking forward to that….

I call this one “Rusted Renaissance”. I was trying NOT to do old world in favor of more contemporary looks, but I love this pattern and thought it would be good for something “simple”. Simple being relative.

It IS pretty simple, really. Metallic foils with skip-troweled Ebony Lusterstone in the pattern and a couple of layers of stain on top after the Modello was removed.

This one IS a bit more modern. I love the effect of putting pattern into shapes and REALLY like the way this turned out.

It doesn’t photograph too well, due to the subtle color sheme, but it’s very pleasing in real life and I think the idea can translate to many other options.

Aaah, finally! I have been planning to do a treatment like this in my home office for a LOOOONG time. I am actually writing this from the dining room as the home office has been dismantled for over a year now, just waiting…..

Now that I know how easy this Kimono Collage look really is (once it’s all worked out on the computer) I think I might actually try to tackle this one here at home. Not that the dining room isn’t lovely…..More to come!

You can find all of our latest designs here on the web and in the new Design Library Binder.

When I started in this “pattern” business years ago (as in 25 years ago) I spent almost all of my time drawing and designing original stencils for Royal Design Studio. As that business evolved into two businesses I now find myself too busy “managing” things to actually have time to sit down and draw so have become more of what I consider to be someone who “designs with patterns” more than someone who “designs patterns”. There are so many gorgeous designs to pull from history and different cultures! Plus, I find so much creativity in combining them with different colors, paints, plasters and metallic mediums! Such was the case the last few weeks in creating these large canvases for a trade show to show off some new ideas and designs we’ve been developing. Most of these will get incorporated into upcoming classes and other educational materials. I LOVE having the ability to spark new ideas for other people.

This canvas incorporates one of my favorite mediums, Jasmine Portofino with metallic foil and antiqueing stain.

I was going to to this up very “Hollywood Regency” in a more simple graphic way (black and white, perhaps) but the color bug was just biting too hard.

Instead, I chose the black and white theme (plus a little silver) for this Art Deco panel.

The background is actually a really soft, organic plaster, which helps to soften the highly waxed Venetian plaster.

Inspired by my recent trip to Morocco, I had to indulge myself with a glorious blue and orange color combination.

I love the symmetry and geometry of Zellij tiles. In Morocco you will see numerous different patterns and colorways all used within the same space-but I chose to keep it simple here for American tastes.

I really didn’t know where I was going with this arabesque pattern, but like where it landed. I used polishing plasters and wax for this finish and it ended up looking quite Fortuny-ish, so I am looking forward to reworking this technique with a Renaissance damask pattern. More soon….

For the last two weeks I’ve been madly working on creating cool and unique decorative treatments with some of our new designs. You see, the SALI show begins next week. This will be my 15th year in a row exhibiting at the Expo there. Each year lately, I tell myself I’m NOT going to kill myself coming up with newer, grander things for the booth and each year that idea flies right out the window as I scramble, sweat and stress to try and top what I did the year before in a mad, last minute rush of creativity. This year was NO exception, and you know what? I’m really pleased! I ended up created 10 new, 4′ x 7′ canvases to hang in the booth (and afterwards in a long hallway in our new building). Don’t you just love when your efforts can perform double duty?

One of my favorite things about using Modello Masking Patterns, on top of all the cool decorative treatments that can be done with them, is pulling the vinyl off to reveal the design. This is generally produces a lot of ooh and aah moments. Quite frankly, it can get a bit tedious, but each pull reveals a little more, a little more, a little more, and suddenly-there it is! I’d like to relive some of the those moments here.

Wait till you see the full reveal! I had them photographed before I bundled them up to ship off to Charleston, SC. Coming soon…..