The first thing you need to know about llyn strong is that, unlike her last name, she prefers both her name and her business be unobtrusively lower-cased. The second is something you recognize the minute you walk through the door; when you spend 40 years rubbing shoulders with artists, you end up with a home bursting at the seams with incredible work. Llyn strong is an artist in her own right; as the owner and principal designer of llyn strong fine art jewelry, the gallery studio has been an anchor of Main Street for the better part of four decades.
Strong and her husband, Brad Pine, lived above the storefront for eight years, in a large open loft apartment with 24-foot ceilings. The couple enjoyed being in walking distance of the downtown culinary scene and strong appreciated the convenience of the proximity to her studio. “It was fun for a long time,” she says. “Then Greenville grows and things change.”
In late 2013, strong decided a greater divide between work and home might serve her well and the couple traded their rooftop condo downtown for a mountaintop villa in Montebello. “It’s still close to downtown, but it’s quiet and peaceful and away from work,” strong says. “The first thing that struck me being out here is all the birds. I didn’t realize how much I had missed them. There are birds downtown but it’s just not the same.”
Some minor renovations occurred before they moved in such as opening up the master suite by taking out a wall, adding additional windows to create a studio space upstairs and expanding the patio. Then strong set about finding display space for the artwork she has collected as she’s traveled the world gathering inspiration.
“This house was very hard for me to lay out. I have nine sets of French doors and big windows, although I think our artwork shows better in this house,” she says. The doors and windows created a lot of narrow vertical space to be filled and strong notes that tall, narrow artwork is generally not the easiest to find. “It made me be a little more creative,” she says.
Strong remembered admiring the work of Santa Monica artist Myra Burg at various shows they had both participated in over the years, so she set out in search of the Quiet Oboes, fiber wrapped tubes in varying textures and sheens. She was lucky enough to find several pieces through a friend and former gallery owner and used them to add texture and softness throughout her home. “I have crystals and stones all over the house, because that’s what I do and they speak to me,” she says. “Because I have so many hard things, I felt like it needed something to soften.”
“i have crystals and stones all over the house, because that’s what i do and they speak to me” – llyn strong
The impressive collection of minerals makes for a next level accessory game. Labradorite shelves in the living room illuminate translucent quartz from beneath, agate slices and onyx mix with some extraordinary petrified wood. “I go to the biggest gem and mineral shows in the world, with people from every continent,” she says. “Anything out of the earth you can find there.”
Strong is also a lover of art glass and commissioned an installation in the style of Chihuly’s famed Persians for a show-stopping light fixture in the foyer. Just beyond in the kitchen is yet another breathtaking piece. Visitors to the Peace Center will be familiar with the sparkling angel sculpture that floats over the main entrance and strong is the lucky owner of her very own set of ethereal figures by the same San Francisco artist, Michael Gard (and in fact had a hand in the Peace Center’s angel). “He’s one of the artists I would drool at when I’d go to do shows,” she says. When she commissioned him to do the figures for her home, she sent a picture over to Megan Riegel at the Peace Center. When Gard came to Greenville they met and that’s how the floating foyer angel found her home.
The figures are made from gold plated wire woven around a wax model. When the structure is complete the wax is melted out. Gard shipped the figures to strong in six pieces and wove them back together in her kitchen. They weren’t lit originally; strong had Gard add the lights when he was in town for Artisphere one year.
The lights and rotation are on a switch and can be controlled separately. “When all the other lights in the house are off at night the patterns on the ceiling are spectacular,” strong says.
Speaking of spectacular, a fortuitously leaky shower led to a custom master bath makeover, complete with floor-to-ceiling gold leaf under glass tile in the shower, heated floor and, of course, a chandelier. The same tile surrounds the tub, set into the wall grotto-style and covered by a domed ceiling on which strong had Shannon McGee of Artisanal Finishes work his magic. McGee used Venetian plaster to create a scene reminiscent of the work of Gustav Klimt, strong’s favorite painter. Strong made the knobs and handles herself out of citrine crystals, chosen for their healing properties. She takes full advantage of the spa-like bathroom and takes roughly six baths a week.
When she is not luxuriating in the tub, you’ll likely find her and Pine on the patio, a walled courtyard shrouded in privacy by Japanese maples. “The patio is actually the best room in the house when the weather’s good,” strong says. “You can be anywhere in the world out here at night with the lights on.”
Strong worked with Tobin Hines of Concrete Canvas to create a table surrounding the grill, in the middle of which she designed a five foot long, narrow gas fire pit filled with glass. A metal hood was crafted to keep water out of the fire pit and strong stenciled the top so that it hangs as a piece of art on the patio wall when not in use. Doors and windows open to the outside, but stay mostly closed in deference to Luna, the feline member of the family who has claimed the patio as his outside domain.
by Allison Walsh / photography by Inspiro 8 Studios
