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Natural materials, raised to fine art.

Made entirely by hand from nature’s own materials — mica, straw, eggshell, glass, silk, wood & metal.

On the cover of Architectural Digest

Of all the rooms at 740 Park, the mica room made the cover

For Michael S. Smith's landmark residence at 740 Park Avenue, Ariana created every mica surface in the bar room — hand-patterned veneers she invented and refined over years in the studio. Of the project's many rooms, it was that one Architectural Digest chose for its October 2018 cover.

The 740 Park bar room, clad in Ariana Blum's mica, on the October 2018 cover of Architectural Digest

Michael S. Smith  ·  740 Park  ·  2020 Stanford White Award

For over twenty years, Ariana Blum has transformed raw, organic materials into fine art — walls, furniture, lighting and objects, each split, laid and lacquered by hand until stone, straw and shell become something luminous.

“I turn stone into cloth”— Ariana Blum, on her mica

Selected works

A selection from the studio

A mica-clad bar room at 740 Park with a Venetian mirror and shimmering silver-grey wallsThe 740 Park Bar RoomHand-laid mica · New YorkThree mica table lamps with amber shades glowing in a Louis Vuitton store in VeniceThe Venezia LampsMica · Louis Vuitton, VeniceA large framed eggshell-lacquer mural, lit, on a wall in a city apartmentEggshell MuralEggshell lacquerA round mirror framed in bronze sunburst straw marquetry above a wood-slice consoleBronze Straw MirrorStraw marquetryA console table clad in fan-pattern straw marquetry in a Louis Vuitton boutiqueFan Straw ConsoleStraw marquetryA gold mica display counter in Louis Vuitton's Avenue Montaigne store in ParisLouis Vuitton, Avenue MontaigneMica vitrines · ParisA living-room fireplace surrounded in black and silver mica mosaic, lit by a fireBlack Mica FireplaceMica · private residenceA gray-brown sunburst of straw marquetry radiating from the centreRosewood Doha BallroomStraw marquetry · DohaA cigar box veneered in gold-dust straw marquetry on display at Louis VuittonGold-dust Straw BoxStraw · Louis Vuitton
See more of the work
Ariana in her studio with a golden woven mirrorMeet Ariana
About

The studio & the maker

Ariana Blum turns raw, organic materials into fine art — inventing new veneers and finishes over two decades of collaboration with the world's leading designers.

Read Ariana’s story