At Lily Juliet we approach every item we design as something special and unlike anything else…and each piece is handmade by gifted craftspeople. We want to catch your eye, stir your curiosity and create conversation pieces.
As for me, I dreamed of far away places from an early age and of being an architect…my heroes were Marco Polo and Le Corbusier…I was fascinated by the details of older structures, the engineering gracefulness of suspension bridges and the beauty of Botticelli’s Venus Rising. I did study architecture and urban design, tried painting and traveled as much as possible, eventually ending up in Vietnam as it was just opening up to the world. After renovating an abandoned art deco villa in the dense maze of Hanoi, I began immersing myself in the culture that engulfed me…meeting artists and artisans…and being energized by their talents and resourcefulness to create beautiful objects in a wide range of materials.
Over time our collaborative efforts began to take shape. We created our truly unique Grand Slam Servers from luminous, colorful resin and reclaimed water buffalo horn. These big, bold and fun pieces are great for entertaining and wonderful as hostess gifts. Oprah agrees and has featured them in her “Favorite Things” list. We add colors each year and the demand continues to escalate, and with our wide variety of options there’s a color to match every decor.
As we explored new ideas, we realized we needed to expand… fortunately we found a wonderful workshop on the tropical island of Cebu in the Philippines. I set about to create a collection from translucent resin….I was drawn to light playing with lots of color…each piece unique depending how the color and light interacted…each piece like a painting…some cloud like, some just a wave of color…different shades of blue were my favorite, yet charcoal and pink and violet and orange all found their way in.
We started with the Sorrento Bowl…a strong, simple shape, large enough to hold lots of salad with our Grand Slam Servers…the Sorrento has since been joined by sister bowls, the Portofino (larger), the Remy (smaller)…we added Cakestands and oversized Pitchers, combining two colors of resin…and a large showy Champagne Bucket…and Trays, the oversized Ottoman Tray, the rectangular Bar Tray and most recently the round Makati Tray. Makati is the glamorous commercial heart of Manila, and we added more pieces including an Ice Bucket and a Tapas Set to create a unique Makati collection. The resin in these is not translucent; it’s marble like.
While in the Philippines we discovered another small workshop that crafted product out of Mahogany….using wood that is rescued we’ve developed the Boracay Bowl and Boracay Vase…each made from hundreds of small pieces of wood intricately fitted together. Though not actually fabricated on the beautiful island of Boracay, we thought they deserved the name.
Our goal at Lily Juliet is to fill your home with pieces that make life more fun and beautiful; to create designs that are both useful for entertaining and that add artistic interest to your home. At the same time we are dedicated to improving the lives of our craftsmen and their families in both the Philippines and Vietnam. We only wish our customers could meet and know the wonderful artisans in Saigon, Cebu and elsewhere who have collaborated with us. I thank each of them…
~Joel