I have to admit to being very excited when I saw Apavisa‘s new Pelle range in the flesh for the first time at Coverings. This achingly beautiful leather-effect range has been created using one of the most innovative production techniques possible: 3D digital printing. With this new generation technology, tile designers can not only create subtle surface colours and patterns but even print texture on tiles using digital printheads. With this new technology, the flat biscuit tile becomes the manufacturing equivalent of the oil painter’s canvas. And, if Pelle is any indication of the quality of the resultant designs, the widespread adoption of this advanced technology will prove to be a step-change in the evolution of tile production.
Leather has long been associated with protection, beauty and power and has captivated humans since pre-historic times. Over the centuries it has been tooled, dyed and developed to produce furniture, ornamentation, fashion and haute couture.
With Pelle, Apavisa is tapping into a world where the co-existence of the manufactured and the natural produces a surface finish that is fully attuned to modern interior design trends. With this range leather-effect porcelain tiles have the ability to clothe and cloak spaces with a warm, soulful, and unique surface. Pelle allows designers to make an avant-garde statement with a very traditional look.
The new 3D digital technology offers the possibility to create and replicate the different micro-textures of leather on each of the tiles in the collection, thus emphasising the natural tactile appeal of leather in all its complexity. The result is organic yet sophisticated, featuring very natural colours enhanced by aged gold and silver to deliver a noble, historic and seductive finish.
Pelle comes in a range of modular formats including 900 by 900, 450 by 900, 150 by 900, and 75 by 900mm. It is a rectified range with ramdom shade and aspect variation. Added interest is provided by 98 by 446mm Pelle mosaic listelli, 285 by 285mm Pelle brick mosaics and 50 by 50mm Pelle mosaics.
This is an exotic range that looks forward by looking back, with a contemporary palette and understated charm that will grace a wide range of interiors.
A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, May 2018.