words Carol Eid
These Porcelain plaster lamps from young designer Julien Carretero hang colourfully but do not try to be pretty. Their rough unfinished quality is reminiscent of industrial concrete.
“My main interest in design is trying to find new processes,” says Carretero, who has recently exhibited his lamps in New York’s Moss Gallery. “I wanted to make shapes without moulds and get a finish you can’t get with ceramic, so I created my own method that allowed the same efficiency as a moulding technique but with unique results.”
Carretero’s series of vases, lamps and tables, which is called Drag, was inspired by the traditional method used for cornice-making, where a wooden outline is dragged over the hardening plaster to create a decorative profile.
This process applies ideas from mass production to make products that vary greatly in final texture. Their design becomes more of a research process than a solution to a problem.
“It’s not about the ultimate product,” he says. “I don’t want to become a factory.”
