With floating floral imagery, Highgate-based artist Michèle Oberdieck’s fused glass panels look far too delicate and ethereal to protect walls from grease splatters.
Yet the botanical designs, hand printed onto either silk or linen and then fused between sheets of glass in a kiln, are much more hard-wearing than they at first appear.
They can be used for a range of interiors purposes from feature walls to sliding screens, table tops, shower doors and beyond. Oberdieck gets mostly private clients but has also had commissions from banks, from Daks and Debeers on Bond Street and for spas on cruise liners.
And while her mainstay may be botanical imagery, Oberdieck is not afraid to approach new challenges.
“A Turkish family wanted a crescent shape motif in a set of doors so I did a design for them with that in mind,” she says.
“I came up with something related to that kind of half moon shape that’s in the flag, but it also crops up in a lot of Miró paintings. That was a nice change.”
Her background in textiles is behind the panels’ subtle beauty and she has a huge range of different colourways that she works with, although clients are also free to try out their own.
In a world of interiors that contain any shade in the spectrum, so long as it’s grey, the most popular colour of the moment is somewhat surprising.
“What’s been in fashion for quite a number of years is a kind of mustard colour,” says Oberdieck.
“People who would never wear yellow are now really going for it in their homes. It picks up a room.
“A common colour for walls at the moment is that Farrow & Ball Elephant’s Breath colour, so a really punchy mustard yellow works really well. My range of yellow cushions sold out at the recent Made London fair.”
The screens have varying opacity, depending on the type of fabric used. Linen creates an opaque screen, while silk gets quite transparent when fused with the glass.
According to Oberdieck, the floating imagery offered by silk is somewhat more popular but practical considerations still come into play.
“For shower doors clients might want a silk so it’s transparent but with parts etched out so there’s still some privacy.
“Alternatively, people sometimes want to hide the kitchen from the dining room, so then they’ll go for a solid linen.”
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