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Go to shop27 November 2024
Grace and chromatic harmony characterize her design but also her way of creating the right decorative balance in the living space.
What made Alessandra Baldereschi famous are undoubtedly the creations that she designed for Ichendorf over the years, produced in borosilicate glass and characterized by the presence of small elements of flora and fauna that capture the eye and the heart. The emotional and suggestive component is a recurring motif in her creations that range from table accessories to decorative objects, from sculptures to lighting. Without forgetting the furnishings that often carry with them a decorative matrix inspired by nature.
What was the path that led you to do this job?
After studying art and in particular sculpture, I enrolled in a course at the Domus Academy on product design. I didn’t imagine myself as a pure artist and I wanted to understand if I could design something that also had a function. At the end of the course, in 2001, I spent three months in Japan where I worked a lot on tableware, and it was a first direction on which I then concentrated a lot. From that experience I have retained graceful aesthetics, attention to detail, the harmony. Because I find that, while in our country everything is very “shouted” and we look for the object that makes a splash, in Japan there is a deep sense of harmony and balance between full and empty, it is all very soft, delicate.
In your projects there is a strong evocative and decorative component. How do you create a decorative balance in your home?
Precisely by respecting the alternation of full and empty, that thin line between filling the space too much and therefore being almost overwhelmed by the objects and filling the space too little. In particular, when placing decorative objects, it can be difficult to position the objects and memories that you have kept over time – I have many too – and make them coexist in the same space.
When combining them, it is important to establish a dialogue between them that can be chromatic, of shapes, of meaning. And it is an approach that I also use in the design phase, for example in designing the collections for Ichendorf I always try to create different elements that can be put together to form a scene. And the same can be done by those who buy two or three objects and create a scene.
What is your relationship with your home and how do you choose the elements to combine?
My home is a hybrid space that I like to lean on to work and it is also an exhibition space for my work. I don’t mind working at home and I don’t feel the need for a clear division between workspace and living space. Then of course if there is a need I go to the studio. They are two physically different places, but I also like to mix them.
Glass is a recurring material in your creations: what is the most important aspect to know about it?
My relationship with glass is very particular because in general I prefer to control everything but with this material I can’t do it also because I have to rely on the master glassmaker who works it, making changes that often surprise even me.
One of the aspects that is often ignored is that there are various types of glass that have different processes, in particular borosilicate glass which is the Ichendorf type has a different process from Murano glass and therefore also a different cost of the final product.
Both borosilicate and Murano have their difficulties but setting up a laboratory for borosilicate is simpler than the furnace where Murano glass is worked. From the processing point of view, they are almost two different materials. Recently with Multiforme we created a collection of lamps in Murano glass and I recommend everyone to visit the furnace to really understand the value of these kind of objects.
