How Unopiù Ushers Italian Riviera Into the Home

If there is ONE catalogue release that fills me with both excitement and anticipation, Unopiu's catalogue is it. Year upon year it comes up with a feast for the eyes, as much in terms of innovative product design and quality of materials, as in the photographic style and select photoshoot locations of geographical and architectural interest (Italian lakeside, Tuscany and seaside as appetizers, anyone?). We are talking the stuff of glossies, so if you happen to be an Architectural Digest aficionado, Unopiù is of that sleek calibre.

Therefore no dreaded dingy studio with zero art direction and snapshots on the cheap here! Everything is carefully thought out in its minute detail, and to the highest spec, from the products to the catalogue layout and quality of the paper itself. Talk about immersive experience, you got it right here at Unopiù!

Of course the catalogue's aim is not to detract, distract or deflect from the product ranges themselves. This is a retail company after all. The marketing material enhances what is to be expected when you shop from a place like Unopiù. Expect no-negotiable quality: weatherproof garden furniture, sturdy pergolas, homeware pieces that are made to stand out, and ingenious carports and greenhouses that become one with their surroundings.

All is delivered in style and originality and Unopiù shows us how it's done. I might be French and credit a little patriotic excellence in arts and design to my country where credit's due, there is however nothing like Italian design to tone that French chauvinism right down! Design italiano e bellissimo!

Source: All photography by Unopiù.

El Raja Key Archive by Robert J. Kuntz

Rob Kuntz is a living legend and El Raja Key Archive is here to prove it. Now ask any of the people in the know within the Role-Playing Games (RPG) community, and they will agree. I also witnessed it first hand when Rob and I attended Lucca Comics & Games 2015, of which he was a special guest. Rob Kuntz is up there with Dave Arneson, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons® (D&D®), and Gary Gygax, he who made it all happen from the maproom to the boardroom, and from the figurines to the seven-figure profits. Meanwhile Rob's name will forever remain associated with the legendary Castle Greyhawk and his no-less-legendary character, Robilar. So yes, we are about stuff of legend here.

A timeless piece of gaming that is set to become a collectible!

Although Rob was one of the youngest in the original crew, back in the early 1970s, his formative years in Lake Geneva (WI) amongst a bunch of creatives and visionaries, shaped his style, honed his craft and nurtured his talent. Bear in mind that Rob has never sold out. He has remained true to his core values, and not lost sight of the power of creativity as a game designer, and imagination as a gamer - and how to unleash them both and keep them up. Rob has never ceased to be a prolific author and designer either. When he's away from the public eye, you can be sure he's holed up at home working on a project.

Throughout his career that spans more than 40 years, Rob has authored an impressive number of adventure modules and has consistently remained a firm RPG favourite amongst his loyal fan-base and those Original D&D® (OD&D®) afficionados.

Gem of many designs! The Sunken City adventure module has an original artwork by Jim Roslof.

Tread carefully for Rob doesn't want to be typecast. To associate him solely with the world of RPG would be to deny him his versatility. He branched into new territory years ago, as a screenplay writer and a novelist, and now as a game design theory author, with a few books in the pipeline!

Rob's brand new company, Three Line Studio partnered with TLB Games earlier this year in order to capitalise upon his impressive intellectual property. As a starting point, they produced El Raja Key Archive, a retrospective of his early work, brought together under the DVD project as The Collected Maps, Manuscripts, and RPG Artifacts of Robert J. Kuntz.

Rob's classic RPG adventures: imagination unleashed!

Fans are rewarded with four editions to choose from: Basic, Standard, Deluxe and Collector's. Psst, if you want to feel spoilt and special, go the extra mile and stretch your dime: treat yourself to the Collector's edition!

The DVD is a must-have, not only for the die-hard OD&D® aficionados and Rob's loyal fanbase but also to a new generation of gamers looking to explore the origins of D&D® and their legendary adventures. 

El Raja Key Archive DVD is a testimony to Rob's 40-year+ legacy, packed-full with fascinating OD&D® material that harks back to the origins of the game. With Christmas only four weeks away, this is one experience that will make you think (and strategise!) outside the box. Happy gaming y'all!

Source: All imagery via TLB Games.

Corsican Interiors and Exteriors

Mirabelle's Coastalicious island dwelling is taking us down Corsica's scenic roads, then off the beaten track and with a seaview in mind, to those houses of character, their front door unlocked for a little tour. Pictures of stylish private estates, family holiday hideaways, chic hotels and redesigned houses flock together for an instant breath of Summery inspiration...

DECORATIVE CEILINGS THAT MAKE UP A ROOM:

Sources: Painted ceilings make up a room and leave a lasting statement. Volutes, arabesques and phantasmagorical flora in splashes of colour steal the show with their enchanted splendor! (1-2) Photography by Fotograficasa, via (1) Atma Corsica and (2) Abritel HomeAway of ornate plaster ceilings in Casa Magna, a 19th century palazzo located in Rogliano, Cap Corse, to the north of the island of Corsica. Historically, artists - Italian for the most part - used to travel the island during the 19th century in order to sell their architectural crafts to churches, mansions, maisons bourgeoises and the less opulent abodes seeking a touch of sophistication. Decorated ceilings were all the rage for whoever wished to flaunt a little (or more!) wealth. Casa Magna belongs to a photographic husband and wife duo who, as Fotograficasa, run a week-long photographic Masterclass yearly and ad-hoc events, artistic or holistic. Meanwhile you can get a closer look to that ceiling by renting the house!

PRIVATE SPACES THAT CELEBRATE SOBRIETY IN INTERIOR DESIGN:

Sources: (3-4) photography by François Halard for the June 2015 edition of Vogue. Images via Habitually Chic. The 19th century Corsican holiday home of Studio KO architects Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty has been sensibly restored and updated by skilled craftsmen. Neutral tones dominate the interior, and the traditional red tomettes got the heritage pale grey treatment. Besides who needs pictures on the walls when the vistas open up to luscious rambling hills and mature gardens? (5) Part of the prestigious Relais & Châteaux network, five-star Hôtel La Signoria is tucked away in the leafy suburbs of the scenic resort of Calvi, and a stone's throw away from Calvi's jewel-in-the-crown of a sandy beach! The hotel was originally an 18th century Genoese private estate, which became a hotel in 1986 and to which were added apartments, suites, villas, swimming pools and a spa. The restaurant is located within the original house. There is a French Provençal bastide look to the hotel compound, with ochre and terracotta tones to the façades and mature gardens with a strong Mediterranean accent, complete with palm trees, orange trees and pine trees. Dates, oranges and pinenuts and we would be forgiven for craving some Moroccan delicacy! (6) A few miles away from Calvi, the disused Couvent Saint-François d'Oletta had fallen out of sorts and into disrepair. Over ten years ago, love came to the rescue of the Franciscan convent in the name of Candida Romero, an artist who had fallen for the poetry of the place and its potential, not only for her pursuing of her craft but also doubling up as a venue for weddings, artist events and film and photo shoots! Pictured is one of the former nun bedrooms, soberly redecorated, photographed by Henri del Olmo for Côté Sud. You are promised to 'sleep like an angel' by the lady owner.

KITCHENS AND FAMILY GATHERINGS:

Sources: (7-8) The convent's kitchen, photographed by ibid. Granito flooring, repurposed 1950s cabinet and bits and odds never felt so at home than right in here!

LAVISH COUNTRY ESTATES

Sources: (9) Maison Casanova is a 19th century (estimated 1870s) maison d'Américain tucked away in the hilltops of Sisco, a coastal village in the Cap Corse peninsula that stretches like a pointed finger. Photography via Airbnb. In the second half of the 19th century, many established families from the Cap Corse, incentivised by the Spanish Crown under the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 (Real Cédula de Gracias), tried their luck and emigrated overseas to the former Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, Mexico and Venezuela to set up plantations. Within the timeframe of one generation, the Corsican settlers' hard labour had paid off and most of them had made a small fortune. They would return to Cap Corse, their land of origin, in order to have lavish neo-classical manor houses and monumental mausolea erected as a way of testifying to their newly-acquired wealth.

GARDEN DETAILS:

Sources: (10) Detail of a fountain cherub spout in Luri, Cap Corse, photography via Destination Cap Corse. (11) Opuntia ficus-indica is a prickly detail of note scattered along the Corsican shoreline, that sits at the intersection between introduced cultivar from Mexico and its later escapist adventure into the Corsican maquis. Photography by Mirabelle, also featured in our Club Tropicana feature.

Wreaths of Mirth

Mirabelle was off the radar for almost a whole trimester, busy 'gallivanting' for business and leisure in history-steeped European places such as the Tuscan city of Lucca and the one and only city of Paris. Yet as the year is nearing to its end in festive extravaganza, it would be easy to let our blog slip into the ten days that separates it from 2016, and simply let this year call it a day! Or we could summon a little Mirabelliciousness of spirit by just getting a little text and photography together, in order to wish you, dear friends and readers, a Lovely Christmas and New Year!

Source: Metallic Leaves Garland, available to purchase from Terrain.

Mineral Marvels

From the midst of time, minerals have been sought after, carved, polished, scuplted, faceted, architectured and worked some more in order to adorn bodies as items of jewellery, and homes and wares as not only mere incrustations of nature into the human habitat, but as both receptacles and distributors of magical, godly powers they had been conferred by our mortal selves lauding deity and seeking divinity. And more prosaically, their precious or semi-precious state would assign them monetary value that in turn would translate into or reaffirm material status to the beholder, a worth guided by materialistic acquisition and ownership.

Yet no matter how many mysteries from the natural world we have conquered and defeated, we remain fascinated by the raw, rough and somewhat brutish beauty of gemology that surrenders to our coveting gaze and yearning desire for possession. Objects like minerals transcend their material assignation to dominate our minds and hearts and delight our senses to the point of deadly sin.

Meanwhile each mineral seems to unveil a microcosm of its own, supranatural, extraterrestrial, with transposed and imagined rockfaces and crevices, deep canyons pitted against shard-like peaks, shallow lochs lapping lush forests of coalescence, dormant lagoons encrusted into opaque robes of solidified lava, imprints of reflected skies into pools of calcified ores, underground seas unfolded, nebulae suspended in basalt, landscapes of the mind set in stone... Sought-after, visually-pleasing, stratified decorative pieces of geology that fuel the imagination like no other!

Azurite with Malachite

Calcite

Volborthite

Brochantite with Barite

Enargite with Pyrite

Calcite with Fluorite

Malachite

Actinolite

Source: All photography via Andy Seibel, Fine Collector Mineral Specimens. The minerals pictured are available to purchase directly from Andy Seibel.

(1) Ref: S17234 - Azurite with Malachite, Touissit, Oujda-Angad Province, Oriental Region, Morocco. Overall Size: 6 x 5cm. For Sale: USD$950. 'This unusual and distinctive specimen is packed with outstanding coverage. The morphology of this azurite is obviously rare, flat and nearly exposing every face, and the malachite is rather attractive. Here we also have the addition of calcite.'

(2) Ref: S17057 - Calcite, Campomorto Quarry, Viterbo Province, Latium, Italy. Overall Size: 17 x 14.5 cm. For Sale: USD$1800. 'A naturally sculptured specimen of calcite hemispheres adorn vuggy basalt, and make this large plate very presentable for display, considering the matrix and crystals have appeal. This piece is in mint condition.'

(3) Ref: S17062 - Volborthite, Gold Chain Mine, Mammoth, Tintic District, Juab Co., Utah, USA. Overall Size: 11.5 x 8.5 cm. For Sale:  USD$750. 'This is an outstanding specimen of the species volborthite, a yellow-green mineral containing copper and vanadium. This one is significant not only for size, but more importantly as an almost completely crystallized display face without damage.'

(4) Ref: S17082 - Brochantite with Barite, Blanchard Claim, Bingham, Socorro Co., New Mexico, USA. Overall Size: 5.6 x 3 cm. For Sale: USD$300. 'This specimen of brochantite is sporting acicular needle-like crystals in pristine condition without scuffed up areas. On top of that, this thing has crystals all over it!'

(5) Ref: S16940 - Enargite with Pyrite, Leonard Mine, Butte District, Silver Bow Co., Montana, USA. Overall Size: 3 x 2.5 cm. For Sale: USD$300. 'This very fine cluster of enargite and pyrite is an American classic. It is likely Earl Shaw obtained this specimen from Ed McDole since he use to supply them with Butte material. Si & Ann Frazier and Bill McBride also owned the piece.'

(6) Ref: S16657 - Calcite with Fluorite, Denton Mine, Harris Creek District, Hardin Co., Illinois, USA. Overall Size: 5.1 x 4.6 cm. For Sale: USD$1450. 'An absolute prize of freely and fully developed calcite sitting nicely on fluorite. The overall beauty is great and every face is in pristine and spotless condition. This specimen was illustrated in The Mineralogical Record’s Illinois issue, page 30. Ex. William Severance collection.'

(7) Ref: S16365 - Malachite, Ekaterinburg, Sverdlovskaya Oblast, Urals Region, Russia. Overall Size: 6 x 4.2 cm. For Sale: USD$250. 'An old-time botryoidal malachite specimen from the historic Ural Mountains in Russia. [...] This piece came from George Burnham of Burminco fame, with his label accompanying it.'

(8) Ref: S16396 - Actinolite, Minaret Mining District, Madera Co., California, USA. Overall Size: 5.7 x 4.8 cm. For Sale: USD$400. 'An outstanding and balanced cluster of 'uralite' crystals collected by Chris Lehmann in 2001 from the Minaret Mining District in California. This is technically actinolite pseudomorphing some type of amphibole mineral' [...].

The Tile Files: Majolica

In interior design and the decorative arts, an Italian noun that rolls off the tongue in a little dance usually has a lot of premise to it, and Majolica is one of those words! Welcome to Mirabelle's monthly design series, The Tile Files. We've had quite a journey so far, from Tomettes to Mosaics, via Azulejos and Delftware, and right now we are about to embrace the wondrousness of Majolica in its bold design, rich decorative layers, deep strong colours and endearing crackled glaze. 

Tin-glazed Earthenware Dish, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

As much as Majolica is mellifluous by name and by nature, it seems that its heyday is being reinvented by every major art movement. First off, Majolica is a generic term. Scratch its veneer and you find a confluence of timelines and spaces, yet rooted in the same influences. For the purpose of our tile-based research, we aim to concentrate mostly on Victorian Majolica decorative tile, although we need to be aware of other variants of the ware, most notably the decorative tin-glazed earthenware of Maiolica, popular in Italian Renaissance (14th-16th century). The name is believed to be a Medieval Italian reference to the Balearic island of Majorca, a pottery stopover on the Hispano-Moresque wares trade route to Italy. Maiolica ware was mostly used for presentation dishes, drinking vessels and apothecary jars. The designs on the wares depicted a scene or told a story as istoriato wares do.

Art Nouveau Floral Majolica Tile, via Tile Heaven

In general, Victorian Majolica is known to be brightly coloured, richly adorned, layered, moulded and embossed, with emphasis upon florals and curves. Contrasting from the multi-coloured designs are the monochrome ones, which play on the depth and intensity of one single colour, from deep and dark to watered down to a watercolour effect. Closely-guarded trade techniques produce the high-gloss lead-glazed finish, with other effects of translucency and opacity being also achieved. Alongside colour and finish, relief techniques were achieved, by means of cloisonné, tube-lining (a.k.a. slip-trailing), or barbotine (raised painted slip decoration). Stencilled slip tile designs befit the streamlined industrialised processes. Meanwhile the advent of the Arts & Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau will confer Majolica a modernist, angular and voluptuous decorative edge that bridges the gap between the 19th and 20th century.

Art Nouveau Majolica Tile, via Tile Heaven

Historically-speaking, Mintons Ltd. (part of The Minton Tile Companies) is the English pottery manufacturer that is the most associated with Victorian Majolica. The firm started off under Thomas Minton, producing blue transferware for dinnerware, including the popular Chinese-inspired Willow pattern. His son Herbert Minton took the family business to pastures new (with a resolutely modern, design-led approach), branching out into decorative encaustic tiles, and forming partnerships with designers and architects in the process, attending worldwide trade fairs and gaining recognition as high-profile contracts were signed. Minton took on French engineer Léon Arnoux as Art Director and the latter produced Majolica coloured glazes that gained a lot of attention at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

As much as the second half of the 19th century had heralded Majolica's heyday, the 20th century took the fortunes of the English pottery industry as a whole into disarray, through a series of mergers and restructurations that progressively squeezed innovation out of the production model and with it the richness that had been experienced in earlier times. Staffordshire, the pottery county of Britain par excellence, took a hard blow in the process. This bittersweet statement shouldn't prevent us from admiring and appreciating those designs of the past that actually appear so contemporary and fresh through their choice of bold colours and inventive motifs.

Art Nouveau Tile by Sherwin & Cotton, via Art Nouveau Tiles

Sources: (1) Tin-glazed Earthenware Dish, late 14th century, Tuscany, Italy, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (2-3) via - and available to purchase from - Tile Heaven. Let us note in passing their interesting history of art section on Majolica. (2) Art Nouveau Floral Majolica Tile, manufactured in the U.K. by Corn Bros, circa 1900, features the popular Victorian and Art Nouveau theme of foliage and florals. The central motif resembles a blue poppy, with a foliage border surround. Interestingly the motifs sit at the intersection between Victoriana and Art Nouveau, with signs of Victorian exuberance, as opposed to the more rigid and restrained (stylised) geometric representations of Art Nouveau, as found for instance in the (3) Art Nouveau Majolica Tile, manufactured by id., circa 1905. Further fine examples of Majolica tiles may be viewed from Tile Heaven. (4) Art Nouveau Tile, circa 1910, by Sherwin & Cotton (1877-1911), via Art Nouveau Tiles. The website boasts a fine Art Nouveau collection, with some stunning examples by the likes of Marsden Tile Works, Alfred Meakin and Pilkington.