Local Assets: Inspired Ornamental
February 15, 2019
Text by Debra Spark
Favorite project of the six employees at Inspired Ornamental? I am imagining it will be an elaborate crown molding with egg-and-dart detailing, a particularly finely rendered scroll on a corbel, or a petal-inspired ceiling medallion. I am picturing jobs that require preserving, replicating, or creating architectural detailing for historic homes, public buildings, churches, or new residences. This is what Inspired Ornamental does, after all. But no. Principal owner Adam Bergeron doesnât hesitate to name âthe Skull Ceilingâ as the universal favorite. In 2017, Inspired Ornamental cast 1,200 small skulls, which they then shellacked, brushed with antique wax, and individually installed around a central rose in the vaulted ceiling of a private dining room. Itâs a project that makes more sense when you learn the client was Lolita Cocina and Tequila bar in Bostonâs Fort Point Channel. If you like vacant eye sockets looking at you while you eatâor simply are fond of DĂa de los Muertosâthis is the place for you.
If the macabre and funny represent one extreme of what Inspired Ornamentalâs craftspeople can do, the other extreme is where they more often live: with historic preservation projects, mostly in the Boston area, though the business is located in Salem, New Hampshire. At the moment, they are restoring aged and damaged plaster at Harvard Squareâs Saint Paul Parish, reproducing molding for a Manchester-by-the-Sea home renovation, and finishing statue busts for the Boston restaurant Yvonneâs.
Thirty percent of Inspired Ornamentalâs business is mold or model creation. This can involve brushing pinky-orange silicone rubber over existing pieces, letting the material work into all the crevices. Plaster is cast in the rubber mold, then de-molded and installed. Less intricate work is done by pouring urethane over a model. Trim profiles are made by taking a slice of existing molding to form a knife that can be run repeatedly over setting plaster to cut the desired design. Clients also come to Inspired Ornamental for new designs for decorative ceilings. The âfifth wallâ has become increasingly of interest to customers, Bergeron notes. Though its work is largely custom, Inspired Ornamental offers off-the-shelf items, including enrichments for crown moldings. Their best-selling item? A skull-shaped ashtray.
Inspired Ornamental, Salem, N.H., inspiredornamental.com
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