Design
l’aviva home
Talabartero Leather Pouf Collection.
These poufs and pillows are inspired by Columbia’s equestrian heritage in the country’s coffee-growing region. “Talabartero” translates to “master saddler” and the collection employs expert craftsmanship and fine detailing. The poufs are made by the master craftsman Edgar Beltran Jaramillo and his skilled Bogota-based team.
The small details: stitching, braiding, embroidery, and hand-tooling, showcase examples of the very best from the area’s vintage saddles.
Image courtesy of: l’aviva home
L’aviva home is a wonderful design studio that works directly with artisans around the world in order to cultivate the development of luxurious hand-crafted homewares and lighting pieces. L’aviva home believes that we should surround ourselves with the things that possess a history, a purpose, and most importantly, a soul. Furthermore, the items that we reside with and share our home with should help us connect to the world.
In addition, the company honors what connects an object to its origins. With wares that come from artisans around the globe, the unique and exhaustive collection is beautifully curated to tie the binds between old and new and also, traditional and current.
Laura Aviva inside her Soho loft.
Image courtesy of: 1st Dibs, photographed by: Genevieve Garruppo
L’aviva home was started by Laura Aviva, a former Creative Director for Travel + Leisure Magazine. The Los-Angeles native has called New York City “home” for the past twenty years, and she has lived in her Soho loft for the past ten years. Coincidently, or not coincidently, Aviva moved into her current abode at just about the same time she launched her company. As she says (courtesy of 1st Dibs), “It was the perfect opportunity for me to design a flexible space that could morph easily as my business grew.”
Normally, Aviva spends more than half the year “on the road” traveling to places around the globe in order to collaborate with the unique artisans that create her distinctive collection of textiles, furnishings, and home goods.
An Agave Light in process. These pieces are so big, that it takes four people to remove the fixture’s mold.
Image courtesy of: House Beautiful
The concept behind l’aviva home’s newest lighting line happened organically, over a good drink after a long workday. Having spent a lot of time in Mexico, Aviva and Allyson Keenan, the company’s Home Design Director, brainstormed over mezcal. In Oaxaca, mezcal is essentially the lifeline of the region. At one specific moment, the pair was looking at the pina, the heart which is the middle of the agave that is used to make the distilled alcohol.
Rendering the pina’s unique shape in glass became a focus… albeit one that was not easily achievable. Christian and Salime, the founders of the glassblower Xaquixe in Oaxaca were up for experimentation. (The pair met at the glass-blowing studio, Brooklyn Glass and went on to open their own studio that employs ovens which are run 100% on leftover cooking oil collected from restaurants.) After several attempts, Aviva and her team found one that delivered the envisioned shape and size. The results were like nothing seen before… the faceted shape refracts light in a unique manner.
Pierta Sconces.
The inspiration behind these sconces are the stone masks of the ancient civilization of Teotihuacan. The sconces parallel the defined angles and streamlined silhouettes of pre-Columbian stone masks. They are carved from either onyx or marble, and each sconce reflects its stone’s unique character.
Image courtesy of: Tala
Aviva says that the idea for her company really took hold during a 2010 trip to Kyrgyzstan. She took the trip in order to get a better understanding for shyrdak, the felt rugs that traditionally line the floors and walls of local yurts. That trip gave Aviva the feeling of fulfillment; she loved meeting the local people and listening to their storytelling regarding the historical context behind their art.
Aviva believes that people want objects in their homes that tell stories and that are authentic. She understands that it is important that the handmade items she curates have to be true to the materials in order to be authentic. Aviva hopes that the pieces she offers will leave her customers connected to the world in a way that is meaningful.
Cobre Light.
This special collection was made in Santa Clara de Cobre, one of Mexico’s towns that was bestowed a unique designation for their rich cultural heritage. Here, copper art has been practiced in the same way since pre-Columbian times. The Cobre Collection comes via a partnership forged with Sergio, a fourth-generation coppersmith with an eye for allowing the process to inform the design itself.
Sergio forms each piece by freehand… no molds or casts are used, only fire and basic tools meld the copper into the desired form. Each piece from this collection is defined by thousands of individual strokes that leave the maker’s distinctive imprint on the copper. The fire further enhances the finishes.
The well-being of the artisans that she collaborates with is of the utmost importance to Aviva. In 2018, the upscale shoe company Loeffler Randall contacted her about the alpaca she uses in Bolivia. They needed quite a bit of the material to use for shoes and bags. However Aviva realized that the weavers might be overwhelmed and that this big of a project was not necessarily sustainable. Aviva made it her mission to ensure that all her artisans are well taken care. For those she collaborates with, this is more than a project, this is how they live.
