RELIEFS BY DOMINIKA J. ROSTOCKA

The hand-made wall relief is an exceptionally original and tasteful decorative element of the interior. Nowadays, it is used extremely rarely because of the time and effort needed to produce it. However, the effect delights all admirers of beautiful interiors and connoisseurs of art. The propagator of the return of the reliefs to interiors is the Warsaw architect and designer Dominik J. Rostocka, who has been making wall reliefs for 12 years. Recently, she opened a studio dedicated exclusively to this art. They make them manually using traditional methods from the 1920s, using original ceramic gypsums. They are made of material produced from selected natural gypsum stone, extracted from underground deposits. After obtaining full chemical properties, they are a very grateful material that is easy to polish and can be covered with various finishes.

"My first relief was made several years ago. From the beginning I made them by hand using gypsum. This is a traditional technique, used for a very long time. I think that the relief created in this way is a perfect decorative element that gives the interior a unique character. Due to the technology and the long process of making the form, you can be sure of its uniqueness. You can pour only a few copies from one form. In combination with the play of light, bas-reliefs become real works of art. They can be perfectly integrated into contemporary interiors in almost any style. It all depends on the designed design and the chosen method of finishing the relief ", explains Dominika J. Rostocka.

To take full advantage of the decorative features of the relief, place it in the right place in the interior and illuminate it. The best lightening is from the top, 60 cm from the wall. It's great if the relief is presented in a frame that emphasizes and exposes it. The surface of the relief can be finished in one of 12 colors and materials. An original idea of ominika J. Rostocka are specially designed cutting curves, which not only serve for assembly and facilitate transport, but above all emphasize the manual finishing of the relief and introduce an additional element of its individuality. Dominika recommends leaving visible connections, but at the clients' request they can be stuck without a trace after the relief has been placed in the target place

"It is worth paying attention to the relief formats. The minimum dimensions of one pattern are 100 cm x 250 cm, and there are also larger individual works (eg 350 x 280 cm). My reliefs can be made in the left and right versions, which gives the possibility of folding them into long series. Such complex decorations will ideally decorate large display walls. Now I work on a relief for the hall in office building, which will have a height of 5.8m and a width of 3.8m. Previously, I used them in the Warsaw apartment building Prestige Residence. Each floor is decorated with a relief stylized in the 1930's, a model I created especially for this place, "says Rostocka.