European Flooring

Friday, August 15, 2014

Antiqued Delft Tile, Francois 1er and PAVÉ

17th Century Antiqued Delft Tile - The Bees
A lot has been happening to PAVÉ over the past year.  As I had written before, we moved.  This move was imposed upon us by us for the conditions of the building were unsafe from those one hundred years ago.  Fast forward to now...in a light filled, high ceiling, well-ventilated 14,000 sq ft facility with a 1200 sq ft attached showroom (open by appointment only beginning Spring 2015) - our creativity went into over drive.  We are working on a new division of Pavé that will be called Historic Decorative Tile.  I have been busy painting new series for our Antiqued Delft Tile which you will see in this blog, and as well as our Monet Collection - I will be painting in grays, blues and ochers our Montmartre, Carriage House, and Maison de Tunisie Collection as well as adding a new collection called On the Road to Florence.  These tiles will be hand decorated with my original paintings onto our beautiful hand made porcelain glazed crackled bisque tile.

As everything takes time...I wanted to post some of my new Delft Tile Series.  This first one is called Les Villageois for I have this need to turn everything into something French...being a former high school French teacher et al...

17th Century Antiqued Delft Tile - Wheat Fields
Our new division, Historic Decorative Tile will have it's own website - which I am also designing.  What drives my days (probably not yours...) is watching documentaries like last night with François on Voila TV.  It was a show on Chambord - the Château of François 1er (no relation).  We visited Chambord a couple of summers ago although to me, it seemed like yesterday, while taking in as much as possible via TV, the utter beauty of this place.  As I sit there mesmerized by the inlays and carvings in tile, wood and stone, I quietly sift through our Pavé Collections in my mind, present ones and those to come, thinking which ones could make an honest go at being accepted in a place like Chambord.  I was happy to announce to my husband that I could see a few of our collections there - a sweet dream that made me wonder if Francois 1er would agree.  Of course, my Francois does...but I don't know if that counts.

17th Century Antiqued Delft Tile - Fisherman's Wife

Yes...it is true.  We are that nerdy.  Or we are that authentic.  I prefer the latter.  So as my days are filled with creating, painting and running Isabelle to and fro - camp and play dates until school starts up again - my time is limited and thus, a bit slow going in terms of revealing new collections and new websites.  However, my daughter will always be my first jewel...so Pavé must sit patiently until her time comes.  Which it will...

More to come...
A bientôt!
Emmi Micallef

17th Century Antiqued Delft Tile - Blacksmith
17th Century Antiqued Delft Tile -  Grape Stomping