A friend of mine asked me to create something to hang over the window in her kitchen. I thought about it for a while and decided to come up with something a little frilly and fun. Penny is thrilled with it and it will hang in her kitchen for many years to come. About half three years ago a client approached me with an interesting project. He had borrowed an antique corbel from a plantation in Louisiana and brought it to me to see if it could be copied. I cleaned it up, made a mould off it then he stored the mould away for a couple years while his house was under construction. He brought the mould back to me earlier this year and I cast several corbels for him. I ran into him a couple of days ago at the hospital he works at. He shared with me the pictures of the corbels installed. The corbels used in this exterior entry look really great. They are over 36" in length, with a 9" projection. The same corbels were incorporated into the mantel design. The leaves on the bottom were removed for the base, but I think the mantel is very beautiful. I'm very impressed with how both of theses projects turned out and many thanks to my client for allowing me to be a part of this project. Restoration is one of our specialties at Ashworth Design. If you have need of restoration services please call for a consultation. Things have been a little quiet in the ornament world lately. Planned projects haven't progressed like they should, others can't commit and there just seems to be a lack of quality projects right now. Speaking to colleagues and suppliers things are just not happening. Industry wide things are really slow. I am working on a small project right now and hope to install in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I have jumped off into a new direction for our company. I've been watching some others do some amazing stuff with concrete and after about three years of observing have decided to make it a part of our business. Vertical decorative concrete is what we are going to begin offering. There are some other areas of the industry I am very interested in but right now I'm looking at offering a variety of stone and wood options. This is basically a special mixture of concrete which bonds well and has a long drying time which allows for amazing textures. Rock, stone, and wood are just some of the basic things that can be done with it. Applications include mantels, pillars, walls, wine cellars and basements, patio areas and so much more. It can be stained and painted and weathers extremely well. Installation is much faster and lighter than real stone and is really more affordable too. In many ways it it attractive to a wider audience than ornamental plaster. Currently we are in talks to do a mantel, the exterior of a cabin, a chimney and a rock wall with several clients. There are no plans to do away with plaster of course but in these changing economic times it's nice to develop new opportunities for our company. It's funny how fast time flies by each day. With everything that is going on I don't realize how much time passes without an occasional entry in this blog. Today I had to run to the post office in Beamont and snapped a few photos of the building. It's nice to see a building that is built to last and also done with classical materials. Today's drywall and dropped ceiling buildings leave little to the imagination. I wish I had a camera that could do justice to this ceiling. This is just a small part of the first floor. The remainder of the lobby is equally beautiful, but is occupied by the Federal Courthouse. The entire building used to belong to the post office. It is a beautiful lobby and the ornamentation is fabulous. And there you have it. Beautiful layers of ornamentation stacked on top of each other, and in harmony with each other. It's a shame so many ridicule this as old or dated, and try to pass off modern architecture.....a style that has lingered for over 100 hundred years as contemporary and what our society show embrace. Sad, sad, sad! I had the opportunity to return to the home in Chattanooga for some minor modifications that were required. Some new cabinetry was added and we needed to relocate some mouldings to keep the spacing balanced. Chris Lowe from Decorative Arts had arrived with his crew and were in the beginning stages of the faux painting. It was good to see many of the friends I had made while working there. The house still has a long way to go, but they are making progress. I hope to return later this fall and hopefully see the completed room. The old Port Arthur Bank renovation is complete and an open house was held while I was working in Tennessee. The local paper the Beaumont Enterprise had an article about it. The following pictures are from the newspaper. I just got back from a month of working in Chattanooga TN early yesterday morning. We started working on this project almost a year ago meeting with the client and developing ideas. Most of January, February and early March were spent fabricating materials and preparing for the installation. I do wish the photos were better but these were hard rooms to photograph. We started in the master bedroom. This design was purposely kept simple yet elegant. There will be a rich ornate wallpaper and beautiful furnishings. The dining room ceiling is where much of our energy went. The existing crown remained and a linear moulding will be moved to the upstairs foyer ceiling. This ellipsed ceiling really draws out the beauty of the ornaments. Every layer we added just made the ceiling richer and more stunning. The ceiling medallion is amazing. It is a like a jewel in the middle of the room. Multiple layers of detail and texture really set it apart. The dining room ceiling took a tremendous amount of work, but listening to the oohs and aahs from people when they came into the room made it all worthwhile. I grew up about two hours south of Chattanooga. It was fun to come back and spent some time in my old stomping grounds from my youth. Everyone we worked with was great and I can't thank our clients enough for their hospitality. We still have a few details to work on for the home but it was a great experience. Today I visited the job site in Port Arthur. The building is nearing completion. Carpet is in, lighting is on and offices are being installed. The painting on the ceiling continues. Santos, Micky and crew are doing a good job. I think the plaster looks really good. No I don't like the dots, but..... A lot of work went into that medallion. Santos is doing a good job. I really hate the dots! Overall I am pleased with the mural work. Trying to patch up old stuff is not easy. Our next destination is Chattanooga Tennessee. I am really excited about the work we will be doing there. We are also going to install a dining room ceiling in Beamont Texas in a couple of weeks. The shop will be real busy for the next few weeks. While many things are going on, I haven't had anything to show you in a while. One thing I did finish yesterday was my son's valentine box. He decided he wanted a blue ninja turtle box to put all his valentines in. Since Josh is only 4 he enjoys super heroes tremendously. I remember watching ninja turtles as well as power rangers with our oldest who is now 23 years old when he was a kid. I covered the box by spraying 3M 77 on the box and adhered the paper to the box. I cut out the face out of foam and felt and cut a hole where the mouth is so the turtle can eat the valentines. Josh covered the box with all the hearts. I like the little stack of hearts in the corner. He said he was decorating it like a cake. We are still heavily in design mode for several of our projects. We will begin fabricating a new ceiling for a client next week. |
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June 2016
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