Les Maitres et Elèves par ordre alphabétique
Lison de CAUNES
Straw inlayer
Craft National Living Treasures 1998
For more than 20 years, thanks to Lison de Caunes, straw marquetry has been rediscovered and used by many decorators and interior designers. Even if it is still a hardly known art technique, straw marquetry is a French tradition. Since the 17th century, there has been a large production of cases, caskets, pieces of furniture made with straw marquetry.
Lison de Caunes devoted a part of her time to the restoration of this patrimony, and therefore she acquired the mastery of a workmanship that she also expresses through contemporary creation pieces.
Straw marquetry is made following the same techniques as wood marquetry. The straw is either put on the wood with a cutter, or it is stuck on a sheet of paper, and then the bottom of it is cut and the pattern is put away.
What is wonderful with straw marquetry is the fact that with a rustic material, a wisp of straw, you can make very refined objects.
To Lison de Caunes, the two keywords of that job are patience and passion. Bringing back to life an art craft is fascinating ; which indirectly allows her to perpetuate her grand-father’s tradition, André Groult, a decorator.
Lison de Caunes began as a bookbinder/gilder, after she obtained a diploma at the Decorative Arts Central Union. She did that job for about ten years, and was at the same time interested in the rare materials art deco furniture were covered with.
She took advantage of some advises and of her memory of afternoons spent in her grand-father’s workshop, she made trials “on the job”, with what was left of his material, working with galuchat, straw, egg shells and different sorts of leather. She acquired the technique of straw marquetry and cabinet-making, and she kept working in the workshop and doing research into those materials at the same time.
The customers of Lison de Caunes’s workshop are private collectors, antiques dealers, among whom Pierra-Vallois, for the restoration of pieces of furniture and caskets dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries, and also Perrin establishment : objects from the 18th century, and Nicole Kramer : curios, showcase objects from the 18th century.Decorators also ask to work with her, for example Peter Marino (New York), Jacques Orange and Yves Tardon for restoration of furniture dating back to the thirties (Jean-Michel Franck, André Groult, Jean Rozère, etc...)
