“I want the surface to have depth.” Contradiction in terms? Not to Marnie Jamieson, who revels in superbly crafted objects. Her Los Angeles-based studio, Marian Jamieson Furniture & Lighting, offers luxury furnishings to order, through the trade. This multidisciplinary enthusiast cut her teeth at Edwin Schlossberg’s design firm, moving on to become a key member of Sally Sirkin Lewis’s team at J. Robert Scott. The exposure on the one hand to groundbreaking interactive exhibitry and on the other to the most elegant timeless classics clarified for her that no style, category or technique was beyond consideration or mastery. Launching her own business in 1999, her aesthetic has remained consistent: poised, artful pieces that are at once sleek and textural, meticulously finished, with a "come closer and touch" allure. Touching, she says, is key to understanding her design approach that the quality shows in the surface. "You feel the depth of the application," she notes, whether that be the burnished or satin-finished woods, gold leafing, exotic lacquers, antiqued or highly polished metals. Even her lampshades are exuberantly tactile, created of sophisticated, dimensional weavings of silk, linen, grass cloth or parchment.
