Kitchen and bath show: New Ravenna Mosaics weaves Silk Road inspirations in glass and stone tile

April 29, 2011 7:14 AM PT

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When Sara Baldwin was in graduate school to be a painter, she visited the Metropolitan Museum in New York and saw some ancient mosaics. That turned out to be a life-changing moment.

She asked herself why so few were making such beautiful pieces today. After graduation, with a little help from her parents (meals, baby-sitting), she started New Ravenna Mosaics, a company that makes high-end glass and stone tiles for kitchens and bathrooms. Among her clients was Gracie Mansion, the home to the New York City mayor. Her pieces are available at Ann Sacks, among other places.

Her designs take inspiration from the Silk Road and other spots around the world. At a client’s request, she also has done animals and landscapes in mosaic. Premiering at this week’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas is an ikat, based on an Asian fabric design.

Clients can choose from among 50 colors of glass and 60 of stone for a small area of a backsplash or an entire floor. The mosaics are seamless, made like a jigsaw puzzle for the space rather than tiles in particular sizes.

‘You can make your space more unique,’ Baldwin said Thursday at the show.

KBIS: fancy toilets, automated paper towel dispenser

-- Mary MacVean in Las Vegas

L.A. at Home

Mary MacVean

Mary MacVean is the former Mind & Body editor at the Los Angeles Times. She’s a runner and a cook, and has worked at The Times as morning assignment editor, web liaison, food writer and copy editor. She was a national editor and writer focusing on food at the Associated Press and a features editor and a columnist in Moscow, where she also ran a children’s cooking school. She left The Times in 2015.