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Just scratching the surface (1)
2011-06-07 12:39
What:
Anne Renaud High-Fidelity Reproductions
Where:
Monaco, France, Italy
When: from late summer 2011
Contact:
anne_renaud_art@yahoo.com
Anne Renaud is an artist with a difference. Having started out in the American film business as a set artist and as an accessories designer for
San Francisco Opera, she went on to produce reproduction marble interiors for private jets, and has now teamed up with Bruce Thalman, whose focus is also high-end commercial interiors for luxury clients such as
Cartier New York.
For the last six years in the US, they have run a business working on the restoration of yacht interiors, with finishes such as exotic woods, stone and leather; and this summer they are poised to launch a European Office here in Monaco.
The fact is that, for all their pristine beauty, boats of all sizes are affected by small impact damage and scratches - especially in the charter business. The unique selling point of their service is that Anne and Bruce are magically able to achieve virtually invisible repairs on a host of different types of wood, stone and leathers, at a much lower cost than replacement - which can often be extremely costly and usually requires the refacing of more than the one damaged piece. With older craft, it's often difficult to source materials that may be no longer available.
Not only that, but Anne and Bruce can restore majestic colour to sun-bleached surfaces, and match functional elements such as switches, footplates and watertight doors to their backgrounds - or even make them disappear!
Anne is justly proud of their work: "Our greatest compliment is when owners tell us they can't find our repairs, or that they had to touch or closely examine a surface to determine it wasn't real. And it's satisfying for us to know that a piece we repaired and billed at $500 would have cost $5,000 to replace!"
Switchplate before...
and after... Magic!
With their business typically handling 100-200 repairs in two to four days, it's plain to see that Anne and Bruce are busy people, and will continue to be so when they move to Europe. (Incidentally they are fluent in French, English and Spanish, and are soon adding Italian, Turkish and Thai to that list). Some of their biggest clients are those requiring their boats to be prepared for Yacht Shows. Did anyone mention Monaco?