Randy Walker Metal Art - About The Artist and FAQ

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About The Artist - Randy Walker
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INTRODUCTION
	Los Angeles based Randy Walker has developed a wide ranging number of designs in various metals and finishes to help turn your design from ordinary into the extraordinary. With Randy Walker Metal Art, you can customize your design and indulge your home or business in distinctive and luxurious metal tiles. Randy Walker Metal Art tiles can inspire your decor with hand crafted beauty from a wide variety of designs including Old World, historical references, and natural elements. Metal Art can be used in floors, walls, backsplashes, kitchens, bathrooms, patios - anywhere you would use stone or ceramic tile.
Randy Walker Metal Art stands above other recent entries into the metal tile market because of his very heavily sculpted designs that provide a three dimensional effect missing from other metal tiles. The logo at the top of this page is embossed in the back of every tile and means that each tile design was carefully handcrafted by Randy himself. The tiles are produced by one of L.A.'s largest manufacturing foundries located only minutes away from his studio. Each tile is then returned to Randy's studio where they are individually hand polished and finished. This attention to detail allows Randy to personally supervise his creations for optimal production, quality control, and customer satisfaction. Randy Walker Metal Art has created beautiful finishes for each of the various metals. Customers must remember that they are receiving a hand crafted product and that small variations will occur from one tile to the next just as in natural stone. This artisan aspect of the tiles only adds to the beauty of the product upon final installation as evidenced by the Tile Display Galleries. In addition, Randy Walker Metal Art tiles come in most standard tile sizes for easy integration and installation into any pattern or design.

BIOGRAPHY
Randy Walker, Southern entrepreneur turned L.A. designer, has skillfully sculpted treasures from the past and present in brass, bronze, and aluminum with stunning aged finishes. His collections span motifs from most historic periods as well as nature. Randy Walker's appreciation for architectural designs was sparked while living in Paris in the late seventies. Building on this experience, Randy eventually developed his own fine jewelry business based on the architectural designs he lived among in Europe. However, feeling limited by jewelry's size and metal selections, Randy Walker made the decision two years ago to develop metal tiles or what he likes to refer to as "Jewelry For Your Home". Randy left behind a star studded jewelry account list led by the country's better specialty jewelry retailers and a following among TV and movie stars including Courtney Cox. His jewelry has also appeared in Friends, Dharma and Greg, Jerry McGuire and Nicole Kidman's Practical Magic. His work has also been featured in fashion magazines as well. Randy Walker, now age 45, began his entrepreneurial adventures at a young age in the early 1980s. Upon graduation from Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (his hometown), Randy immediately began using his Management and Business degree by securing a Haagen-Dazs franchise which he sited directly across from the LSU college campus. In so doing, Randy Walker became the youngest Haagen-Dazs franchise owner in the United States. "It was the height of designer everything," Randy says. "Back then, people were shocked that we could charge a dollar for a scoop of ice cream". Randy and his business partner, David Bassett, went on to open two more successful businesses: a Mexican restaurant (C. Miranda's) as well as a trendy up-scale designer label men's clothing store (Currentz). Both businesses were located in a Baton Rouge riverfront entertainment and retail development called Catfish Town. The apparel business took Randy to L.A. several times a year for market and it was during this time that he decided to someday make L.A. his home. After several years of success in Baton Rouge, Randy sold his businesses and began his westward journey. Living in Dallas for one year, Randy gained more valuable experience from working in the business offices of Neiman Marcus. In 1986, Randy accepted an offer as a consultant for a Louisiana friend's newly opened restaurant venture in Beverly Hills finally touching down on the West Coast as promised. Shortly after his arrival in L.A., Randy met Lee Brevard who at the time was designing jewelry for a private, albeit, high profile clientele. Brevard hired Randy to help him grow his account base into a multimillion dollar business with Neiman Marcus as the first major account. "When I first met Lee, I told him that it was great that he designed amazing jewelry for Elizabeth Taylor and other celebrities, but if you have to eat birdseed in between custom orders and Cher jewelry emergencies, that's not a good thing!". The following six years with Lee Brevard taught Randy the jewelry business inside and out. He also attended classes at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Randy then decided it was time to bust out on his own. Randy enjoyed three very successful years in the jewelry business under his own name before a client's comment changed his life forever. Upon viewing his new collection of belt buckles and sterling silver jewelry boxes, she told him that they were beautiful enough to hang on the walls in her house! It was then that he decided to pursue and develop Randy Walker Metal Art. He decided to make a versatile array of beautifully hand crafted tile designs with amazing finishes in brass, bronze, and aluminum that would allow customers to customize their living spaces with distinctive, luxurious reflections of their own personal style. Simply put, Jewelry For Their Home! Careful consideration was made to allow the metal tiles to be easily integrated and installed with any building material or pattern to create a personal masterpiece. Randy Walker has spent the last two years developing his designs, finishes, and processes necessary to take his unique product to the commercial marketplace. Randy Walker plans to develop a national network of distributorships so that he can focus on adding new designs, quality control, and consulting on custom projects. If interested in joining a national network of distributorships for Randy Walker Metal Art, click on the Contact Us page.