Reflections
October 14, 2019
We celebrate our studio’s anniversary each year on Valentine’s Day, remembering our arrival to Chicago, our first commissions and the wonderful clients we have met along the way. We always feel fortunate to work in a field we are passionate about, to be able to employ talented artists and create environments that give great pleasure to many. Each day that we walk into the studio or a site, the project is unique, as the custom nature of our work necessitates constant investigation and adaptation to different styles and techniques. We very much enjoy the collaboration with many talented designers and architects who hire and inspire us.
Eglomise has become an important part of the studio, among our wide array of custom finishes, gilding, murals and other applied artistry. While reflecting back on completed projects and what is yet to come in the new year, we’d like to share images of a few installations, literal “reflections” of our work..
The above photographs show a general view and a close up of one of our contemporary designs, the Watercolor Mirror, featuring a seamless combination of techniques that create an innovative, playful art piece that is also a looking glass.
Designer: Studio Gild
This beautiful, all encompassing kitchen backsplash is one of our Calligraphic Mirrors for a beach home in Michigan. It reflects the bright white and blue colors of the lake. The text is a spiritual, compelling poem by Hafez (1315-1390), and it is written throughout the full length and height of the wall, including behind the upper cabinets, repeating its sweet verses like a mantra.
Designer: Fredman Design Group
MODERN LUXURY INTERIORS CHICAGO - BEST OF DESIGN 2019
BEST BACKSPLASH - Simes Studios
For a mahogany bar in a residence designed by Morgante-Wilson, the artists at Simes Studios created an artful eglomise backsplash named Constellations. A deep blue-black background with a 24K white gold and platinum-leaf etching of mythological figures is accented with clear glass circles that each contain a cranberry silver-leaf star. The entire panel is backlit with a thin LED light, allowing the stars to shine through.
A very chic and contemporary bar displays a backsplash clad in our Burnished Shagreen eglomise, reflecting changes of light and silhouettes on hundreds of tiny bronze-hued mirrors and giving the impression of movement as we pass by.
Designer: Studio Gild
Photographer: Reagen Taylor
One of the completed panels in the dining room with detail to left. We were commissioned to paint a dining room mural in a traditional Georgian Lake Forest home for a lovely family of seven. There was an existing wallpaper mural from the time the home was built in 1942. However, the wallpaper had extensive wear, water damage, patches and the panels needed to be re-glued. Together with the clients we decided it was beyond repair or touch ups and a new mural was in order. The original mural had a green background and the client was looking to change the color palette to blues and soft whites, so we started with an indigo blue silk-like finish as our background. We wanted to respect some elements of the original design which we did by incorporating the bamboo motif. However, we grouped the foliage quite differently to customize it to the space. We gathered the taller plants in the corners keeping in mind the trim, furniture and sconce placement. In this way elements did not appear to be coming out of the trim randomly, as would be the case with wallpaper. We painted the ground cover in the same tones. The mural was outlined in soft charcoals and leaf green, as a small nod to the original palette. Last we painted the birds and butterflies. We enjoy adding personal touches to each of our murals, and suggested to the client that we paint the initials of each family member in the filigree design of the butterfly wings. This is something not perceivable to most that enter the room, but a special detail for those living there now.
We were presented with the opportunity to create a focal point backsplash for a beautiful mahogany bar in a historical Evanston home. After the first studio meeting with the client we agreed on a stunning, mysterious, constellation eglomise piece we had in our collection.
We were delighted to participate in the aesthetic transformation of a Tudor home into an updated version of the Wiener Werkstatte style. Our studio’s work included various conceptual and technical adaptations, encompassing painted floors, custom eglomise panels, exterior murals and a gilded and tinted ceiling.
When a dear, long time client and friend expressed interest in decorating his master bedroom with custom designed and painted curtains, a wonderful new artistic challenge was set and accepted.
