PARIS — We’re still turning up good finds from this Fall’s Maison & Objet fair in Paris. Designer Hélène Morbu wowed us with her “Quetzal” and “Codex” vases, works whose surfaces mimic the appearance of textiles.
Above image: Quetzal vase by Hélène Morbu for Maison & Objet, 2016.
You just want to run your hand across them, admiring how ornate and precise they are. Most look like Morbu actually wove the clay on a loom, but some pull off an impressive biological effect by taking on the look of scales. Finished with terracotta and earth tones, they create the strange effect of something that is both familiar and unknown. Cloth doesn’t behave like this, neither does lace, nor ceramics for that matter.
Writing for Designboom, Natasha Kwok said that Morbu gets the look by using a “slow and precise technique” that squeezes the earth. The designer has tiny combs that shape each individual ridge across the vase’s surface.
Do you love or loathe these works of contemporary ceramics? Let us know in the comments.
These “Codex” vases are a real treat for the detail-oriented. The lattice-like patterns bowing out from the sides seem to take their inspiration from architecture.
Images courtesy of the designer.
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