From the mountains of Italy, Spain, India, and China, to the quarries of Turkey, Greece, and Afghanistan, New Ravenna sources materials from all over the world! Yes, gorgeous marbles and exquisite limestones are imported to our tiny little coastal town of Exmore, Virginia by plane, ship, and train – among other sources of transportation. The rangey Plumeria in, for example, our Hugo mosaic, hails from Italy, while the Kay’s Green that lives alongside it came to us from Greece. And then there’s the Nero Marquina that so beautifully highlights the other two materials while providing a stark outline – that comes from China.
Over the last 30 plus years, we’ve seen some of the most alluring natural materials moving in and out of our doors and warehouse. But the arrival of stone is just the beginning. Depending on the mosaic ordered, said material may see many different hands in many different departments – honing, tumbling, nipping, saws, field tile, the design center, the mosaic floor, and the list goes on. But it all starts with that one-of-a-kind piece of stone, hand-picked for New Ravenna by our overseas vendors with whom we’ve developed very close and trusting relationships over the years.
Most recently, we received a stunning lot of Calacatta from Italy. The term “Calacatta” is surely familiar to you, as we’ve utilized many different Calacattas in our designs over the years – Calacatta Radiance, Gold, Monet, and Tia – just to name a few.
Some of the best representations of our Calacatta can be found in our Studio Line of ready-to-ship mosaics. Calacatta Monet makes an appearance in one of our newest patterns, Double Brick, while it works alongside Thassos in our beloved Esmeralda pattern here. In the angular Raj pattern, Calacatta Radiance is paired with our honed Paperwhite, and in Flower Hex, a powder room floor’s dream, it acts as the background for this adorable Nero Marquina flower.
While Calacatta displays some beautiful movement and is a go-to for kitchens and bathrooms the world over, we can’t help but shine the spotlight on two of the most unique and jaw-dropping materials out there – Blue Macauba and Blue Bahia, both shipped to us last week from Brazil. Blue Macauba is a Level 4 stone – which means the variation in range is high. At New Ravenna, we celebrate range in stone and believe that it lends to the often mimicked, but never replicated specialty of our mosaics. It’s not for everyone, and that’s ok!
While Blue Macauba often shows “streaks” or lines in its rangey hues, reminiscent of the sea or sky, Blue Bahia is known to be a bit more spotty, with notes of gray and black and sometimes even green. Blue Bahia and Blue Macauba can be found in some of our most intricate mosaics – the ones that show tons of movement and are treated as sometimes more of a painting, blending and creating colors, than a mosaic made from stone.