By Joann Mackenzie
Staff Writer
—
For more than six months, it sat there, neglected.
The 3,000 square feet of empty retail shell left behind when Cape Ann Liquors left Bass Avenue for Gloucester Crossing seemed, as months rolled on, to be on its way to becoming something Gloucester did not need: an eyesore.
But around the Fourth of July, the fireworks began. The business partnership of Dennis Bryant and Molly Andrew-Williamson had taken possession of the abandoned space, and taken on the Herculean task of transforming it into Tessera Tile and Stone — a place they envisioned as exactly what is today: a dazzling emporium, of tile and mosaics.
Step inside, and the partners greet you with their three-word credo: Dream, design, create — not spoken, but set in stones in the floor.
Nothing suggests the place was ever anything but what it is today, which is a showroom offering a surprisingly eclectic mix of quality elegance and down-to-earth hominess.
While the partners seem at ease, it was, they say, anything but easy making this all happen.
For one thing, they'd self-financed the venture, so time was money. They'd set a six-week deadline on renovations. Cost-cutting was also crucial. But the site was not, as it turned out, as empty as they'd thought. Things had to go.
"Dennis got in there," says Andrew-Williamson, "and started smashing away."
Smashing happens to be at the heart of what Bryant loves doing best, which is mosaics. To him, tiling is mosaics. And to the scores of Cape Ann clients he's worked with over the years, that's what elevates his tiling to artistry.
Mosaics have a lofty history. The great edifices of the world's ancient empires were paved and vaulted with them. But modern mosaics happen, at the moment, to dovetail with a very practical necessity: recycling.
"I got into mosaics because I couldn't stand the waste of material when I first got into tiling," says Bryant, "so I'd smash up left-overs and recycle them into mosaics."
That was 25 years ago, long before the word green acquired a capital 'G.' Now that green is huge, recycling has made mosaics the biggest trend in tiling, with re-cycled materials re-imagined in high-end designer lines of sustainable surfaces.
But Bryant's and Andrew-Williamson's favorites are the works in progress in the sunny mosaics studio at the rear of their showroom, where kids of all ages craft away.
"This," Andrew-Williamson says of the studio, "is the part of our dream that's all about community. We could never have realized this dream without the help of this community.
"Everyone pitched in to help in so many ways," she says, "Honestly, one day I just wept with gratitude."
The business of tiling is new to Andrew-Williamson, but her background in the hospitality industry helps in the showroom, when certain things may be intimidating to customers.
Flooring, for instance, that looks like polished inlaid marble, but is actually affordable tiling, custom-designed and inlaid by Bryant.
Faux marble aside, there's nothing intimidating about Tessera. Gallery quality mosaics are mounted next to dollar tiles, and in the conference room, Dennis dazzles clients with designs scribbled on napkins, while over in the corner, a flat screen monitor waits for software to upgrade his presentation skills with virtual 21st century technology.
That doesn't, however, mean he'll be showing clients an online portfolio.
"I've never," says this craftsman, "shown a portfolio."
Why not, with his impressive roster of work, why not?
"Because," he says, "it's not about what I've done for other clients, but what I can do for whoever's sitting across from me now."
Joann Mackenzie can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3447, or jomackenzie@gloucestertimes.com.
