Life through the lens of fine crafts

Once again this year, the four winners of the Young Creative Craftworker's Award tick absolutely every box, demonstrating technical expertise, artistic talent and an eye for innovation. First launched in 1960, this annual award presented by Ateliers d'Art de France, the national professional fine crafts federation, recognises the country’s most exciting fine craftworkers under 35 years of age. The 2021 winners’ creations are crafted from clay, wood and feathers, harnessing the full potential of the natural world. Almost as though these young craft artists felt the need to evoke all that is shifting and changing, above and beyond nature itself. Such is the case with ceramic artist Aster Cassel and her decidedly surrealist porcelain creations. Crafted from porcelain, they are inspired by evolutions within the living world, scientific processes, genetics and even robotics. Their curvaceous silhouettes seamlessly morph into whimsical animals or minuscule mechanisms, all hand-modelled, whisking us off on a journey that begins with Jules Verne and ends in a mythological world. Once each creation has been hand-painted, it receives a final flourish of gold or some other precious metal. “These enhance both the design and the volume,” explains Cassel, “helping breathe life into each narrative sculpture”. Sculptures that hold up a mirror to a thoroughly utopian world. Or perhaps a world that is in the process of emerging, and we just haven’t realised it yet?

Félix Bouchet, meanwhile, has honed a deep affinity for wood. Maybe because he grew up surrounded by forests in the French region of Touraine. It was in the American state of Vermont, however, that he developed a passion for the iconic Windsor chair, a comfortable and much-loved piece. Its thoroughly unique shape is now used by the young chairmaker as a blueprint for his own designs. “I attempt to mirror the traditional technique whilst simplifying the shape. The idea is to give the chair’s iconic silhouette a more contemporary twist, making it better suited to modern-day living.” The seat is carved from a single block of wood. The wood, which is often green, is cut along the fibre rather than in planks, bestowing each chair with a shape that reflects the tree’s unique sense of movement.

The magnetic attraction of materials

Marion Hawecker and Célia Suzanne are also highly proficient in the ancestral techniques their chosen disciplines demand. But that certainly doesn’t stop them giving those age-old skills their very own modern spin. Like all plumassiers, Marion Hawecker cuts, sculpts and knots bird feathers, striving to shape them into designs that reflect the natural world. But whereas you may be expecting to see floral or animal motifs, she instead fashions gaping rocks, packed with soil in which microcosms germinate and multiply. “I break with tradition by focusing on mineral, tectonic and bacteriological themes that effervesce with new life”, explains the feather artist, whose sensual and smooth creations extend an irresistible invitation to be touched. The intriguing surface of Célia Suzanne’s inlaid designs also ooze tactile appeal. Notably when they blend wood and horsehair into a voluminous whole. The inlayer has elected to push the boundaries of her craft by exploring a variety of materials, including parchment, fabrics and plastic... These unexpected combinations play with the light, with truly breathtaking results.

As well as revealing a new generation of designers each year, bearing witness to the ever-increasing allure of these trades and the determination of these young designers, Ateliers d'Art de France also provides its winners with a veritable springboard for their careers. Each one is, indeed, set to showcase their work at a major trade fair, which is precisely what makes this Award so special: Maison&Objet Paris, the Révélations Biennial, or the International Cultural Heritage Fair. This will not only give them the opportunity to meet other fine crafts professionals, but will also place them firmly on the radar of the general public and the press alike. “It will also help enhance our credibility”, smiles Félix Bouchet, who is set to exhibit his creations at Maison&Objet Paris this September. “People in France are unfamiliar with chairmaking, and it’s a trade that deserves to be promoted”. 

By Valérie Appert