18 Sep Out of the shell
A new showroom at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, Siminetti is an example of the deep levels of specialism to be found within the showrooms. Sourcing mother of pearl from all around the world, it turns this raw material into shimmeringly beautiful mosaics, panels and furniture.
At Focus/23, CEO and founder Simon Powell talked through how both freshwater and saltwater shells are transformed into products for prestigious interior design schemes. Saltwater mother of pearl shells are smaller than their freshwater counterparts, so only a handful of mosaic tesserae can be taken from each one, but they come in an array of alluring natural colours, from the silver pearl sourced from Australia to abalone from the Philippines or Mexico, instantly recognisable for its iridescent greens, blues and greys and according to Powell “impossible to replicate by man-making.” Mother of pearl can be coloured in almost any shade, and Siminetti offers RAL colour matching as part of its bespoke offering.
Mother of pearl is a by-product (either of the food industry or the pearl industry, depending on the type of shell) and Siminetti takes its environmental credentials seriously, working with licensed farms and working to strict ecological standards.
Visit the showroom to find out more and see what a versatile material this is. The new collection of decorative panels, The Botanicals, celebrates the natural world with an array of dazzling patterns, from the stylised palm leaf of ‘Royal Palm’ (top left) to the winding ‘Clematis’ (top right).