Making Marquetry with Leather

We were tasked with creating some new leather marquetry pieces for an event at an interior design company specialising in yacht interiors. These new pieces continue our interest in modernist architecture though we have explored different applications of light and colour and ever more complex designs.

Pompidou and High Rise

The interior piece Pompidou was inspired by the basement galleries in the Pompidou Gallery that were in the process of changing exhibitions during our visit in February. Our focus was in developing a sense of a series of empty interconnected rooms with the light emanating through the entrances from one room to another.

This suggests a sort of narrative through the curiosity of wondering what is happening around the corner with dramatic light and shadow that recalls the mystery of the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico.

Close up, the texture of the leather grain enhanced by the subtle staining gives a real permanence and solidity to the architecture. The leather as a tangible and tactile material adds immeasurably to the illusory nature of the paint.

Similar effects can be seen in High Rise which is developed from one of the few multi storied buildings in Milton Keynes. This much maligned city that was imagined and inspired by modernist principles back in the 1970’s is now starting to mature though curiously has yet to grow upwards.

Our piece suggests the cross over between day and night with the colours starting to shift into intensified reflections. The intricacy of the detailing and depth of colour show the versatility and possibility that leather developed in this way can provide, again with the soft tactile nature of the materials conveying a warmth and depth so well suited to interior applications.