Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1529937
The Enchantment of Decorative Artist Marie Christophe Christophe was discovered by Hermès chairman Jean-Louis Dumas at a group art exhibition in Paris in 1996. Her collaboration with Hermès began with horse sculptures in 1997, primarily works for window displays, special events, and special commissions. Her clients now range from France's greatest Parisian luxury houses including Guerlain, Baccarat, Celine, and Dior to French designers India Mahdavi By Diane Dorrans Saeks Photography David Nakache E thereal and soft-spoken, French decorative artist/sculptor Marie Christophe hardly seems like someone who, with the artful application of pliers, can turn bales of industrial-strength steel wire into fantasy chandeliers that delight top French and American decorators. Colored ceramic shards, glittering glass tassels, antique beads, and hand-blown crystals are added among swirling wires to heighten visual wit and charm. She also wields her hand tools to create menageries of lions, owls, flamingos, and alligators that prowl interiors around the globe. Originally from Alsace, Christophe attended the prestigious graphic design and interior architecture school Penninghen in Paris, where she studied drawing and sculpture. Before graduation, she blended the two disciplines into free-form wire sculptures that became more complex as her confidence grew. Eventually she launched her own studio in Paris. Today, her sunny studio is a former billiards room in a 19th-century country mansion nestled in a bucolic corner of France, where she lives with her husband, interior designer Emmanuel Fenasse, and their two sons. Wire is a medium she finds very expressive, clean, and easy to use. She twists her sculptural bespoke commissions one by one with simply a ball of wire, her grip, and pliers. "The base and inspiration of my work is always wire, and from the start, I've added clear, opaque, and iridescent custom-crafted Murano glass beads for color," she says. "I also work with a ceramic artist in Vallauris in Provence who makes colorful beads for me. Lately I've started to use exotic wood baubles and beads for a slightly more casual look. Each sculpture is designed and made entirely by me." Philippe Model uses Christophe's pagoda- shaped chandeliers in a 17th-century Turin palazzo