Terra Frammenti Touts the Transcendental Beauty of Marble

Some time in 2022, atop winding quarry roads in northern Italy, designer Sheree Stuart found herself traveling alongside marble producers, transfixed by the stone at its source – sights of rosy pinks, verdant greens, and beguiling burgundies. Those initial dialogues, between raw material and maker, physical fragments and the potential within material wholeness, now coalesce in Terra Frammenti, Stuart’s inaugural collection of marble home furnishings. Meant to conjure the elemental poetry of their origin, the 22-piece suite treats stone not as a commodity, but as a cultural artifact, an heirloom of the earth and the hands that shaped it.

The beauty of marble is biblical with a material currency high in aesthetic value, the antithesis to mass production. Terra Frammenti offers a cultural counterpoint: objects that ask for slowness, provenance, and intimacy.

Marble, historically reserved for monuments and sacred spaces, becomes a way to bring cultural inheritance into the home. Stuart’s selected palette reflects this reverence: Sienna Rose pinks, Breccia Firenze burgundies, Calacatta Viola cabernet tones, Arbescato Vagli whites, Palisandro Bluette blues, and Crystal Sapphire greens – each chosen for rarity, clarity, and narrative potential.

Every Terra Frammenti piece is handcrafted in Siderno, Calabria, by artisans whose knowledge is deeply rooted in regional heritage. Their approach pairs generational technique with advanced machining, allowing each form to emerge as a single, uninterrupted gesture of stone. “Starting with a block instead of slabs allows the sculptural qualities to emerge uninterrupted – no seams, just the continuous integrity of the stone,” Stuart explains.

Carving from singular blocks also preserves the geological integrity, and subsequently, the cultural memory, of each piece. “Working at this scale brings a whole new appreciation for the material’s unpredictability and character,” Stuart adds.

The final work acknowledges that stone is intrinsically political and poetic: a natural resource shaped by human hands, signaling the evolving relationship between design, luxury, and responsibility, later imbued with personal meaning by the consumer. “Each piece begins with our inspiration, but once placed in a client’s home, its story continues to evolve,” says Stuart. “How a piece starts is never how it finishes. We want our clientele to see their Terra Frammenti pieces as anchors – objects that elevate a space and spark emotion.”

Many works in the Terra Frammenti collection draw directly from Italian landscapes and mythologies, situating the series within a wider cultural and geographical lineage. The Cielo Bathtub takes shape as a round Calacatta Onyx vessel with celestial, enveloping curves in a sculptural homage to the expansive Italian sky. The Mezzo and Scopolo Ottomans, carved from soft pink Sienna Rose marble and topped with mohair upholstery, channel the dramatic Faraglioni sea stacks of Capri, balancing geological strength with a surprising softness.

The Voluta Vanity, rendered in Breccia Firenze, features a swirling silhouette and a seamless carved stone sink, recalling the elegance of classical architectural scrolls. Sculpted from Fior di Pesco marble, the Curved Marea Chaise introduces tide-like waves that evoke Mediterranean movement and sensuality, while the Corda Counter Stools, in honed Levanto Marrone, use wide fluted forms to echo the rhythmic simplicity of hand-wrapped cord.

Completing this cursory survey, the Sfera Wall Sconce presents a glowing onyx sphere, framing light as an elemental, other-worldy figure. Together, these pieces embody the duality at the heart of Terra Frammenti – functional objects conceived with the presence, intention, and emotional gravitas of art.

While Terra Frammenti launches with 22 debut works, Stuart plans for new capsule collections annually and a forthcoming Milan showroom to root the brand within the global collectible design landscape. Rightfully so, these furnishings, which are derived from millennia-old metamorphic stone, become the foundation for pieces that read as both design objects and cultural testimony. Each carries a geological record of time while their finished form offers contemporary presence.

“Blocks reveal unexpected veining and nuances only visible below the surface,” Stuart says. “The challenge of coaxing elegance from such weight and complexity, and of balancing precision with the marble’s natural variation, is always surprising and rewarding.”

To see these and future offerings by Sheree Stuart Design, please visit terraframmenti.com.

Photography courtesy of Sheree Stuart Design.