Stone-Ideas.com 
“Fabric dresses the human body, while marble dresses spaces,“ states the Italian company Lithea, and together with designer Elena Salmistraro, they have transformed this into something magnificent: The four tiles in the new “Pattern Tessili“ (Fabric Samples) collection are inspired by tartan patterns and Chesterfield sofa covers and become three-dimensional wall tiles.
Lithea is based in the Sicilian capital of Messina and has so far focused its collections on Mediterranean design. Elena Salmistraro has her studio in the economic metropolis of Milan.
Various types of marble are handcrafted to create the tiles. The inspiration is textiles with colored threads, which create patterns of geometric surfaces. Elena Salmistraro has transformed these into inlays or mosaics (20x20x2 cm), whose surfaces have a third dimension.
The “stone fabrics“ are striking not only for their special character, but also for the veins in the material. These are impossible to find in textiles; they would have to be sorted out as machine-weaving defects.
There are four patterns:
* “Plaid“: Bianco Fenice marble with Verde Guatemala inlays;
* “Shepherd“: Pietra Pece, Travertine, Marrone Emperador strips;
* “Chester“: Bianco Avorio with Giallo Siena inlays;
* “Argyle“: Bianco Fenice, Bardiglio Imperiale, Verde Guatemala.
Photos: Nino Bartuccio
