The beautiful range from Marcel Wanders for Crystal Kings Baccarat.
A collection that apparently took three years to develop, Wanders says the starting points were intense consideration of detail, paths of light and the material itself.
In the last few years, Baccarat has seriously upped their game, inviting a number of high-profile designers (most notable in recent memory is Jaime Hayon’s beautiful effort) to create comtemporary editions for them.
Wanders has risen to the challenge with a supremely elegant set of pieces that still retain his trademark humour and flamboyance.
Called ‘United Crystal Woods’, the whole collection will be on display in Milan in Via Tortona.
Channeling the natural world, Marcel Wanders dreamed up “United Crystal Woods” for Baccarat, a collection bringing together several facets of the company: “La Fôret des Songes,” multipurpose candle jars decorated with a lace pattern etched to various thickness; “Les Rois de la Fôret,” monumental cut vases of polished metal or marble bases (the latter available as a limited edition only); “L’Ivresse des Bois,” a set of utterly elegant wine glasses and carafes. And finally, the pinnacle of this imaginary forest, “L’Esprit des Bois,” an improbable family of deer and stags, made of polished stainless steel and wood en¬cased in etched crystal; in candlelight, these poetic, graceful shapes look like dreams come to life
Baccarat // Forest of the United Crystals
A long time ago, in a place not far from here, I remember….vaguely, in the middle of the night, I woke up after a possibly… but probably not, long sleep. With my head on the table, distorted, the last in the room and surrounded by too many beautiful empty glasses, I opened my eyes. Too many empty, too many empty. I welcomed that new day, waking up in that autumn forest, that overwhelming forest of emptied crystal trees, showing their naked skeletons, surrounding me, towering over me, filling up my short view with endless crystal sparkles. What once made the trees colorful was gone, what was loud only whispered, only a few splashes, little witnesses, dried out pools randomly scattered over my table of friends remained.
I woke up in the forest of the united crystals. Too much light forcing me to close my eyes, too many sparkles for a heavy night, boys will always be boys. Me…I will always be me. I was lost, looking for breadcrumbs. After hanging around a little in the united forest of the united crystals, my imagination drifted further and entered the border of another strange
forest. Here the trees were bathing in the lights of four different suns. Light hit the crystal dewdrop-trees, the kings of the forest, in their own special seasonal manner. Four royal trees attracted these rays of light, silently battling over the evolution of their royal status. This was the forest of eternal evolution; here things would always change order, flavor and position. What seemed important today was gone tomorrow. Life and time was wasted and erased with passionate power, and at the same time new minutes were streaming in with vast force as if there was an overwhelming amount of time pushing to get in. In this fierce, hostile environment it was hard to find a place, a chair, some rest. My fluid grey cells moved on… It was silent again when I entered the most remote – and hidden – of the forests of the united crystals, this was called the forest of the lost dreams. Here the most captivating of all forests lived, or better, slept. It was called the forest of the lost species. During the day the forest was quiet as if it was in a 1000 year sleep but at night it would wake up and gently wander around, towering over the united forest.
What seemed logic for the world, to be lost and forgotten, was ultimately impossible here. The forest of the lost species was the final destination of all extinct animals in the other forests and was larger and more active than all others.
Instead of being animated by trees, it was a forest of deer, invisibly hosting all other species, hovering over the forest of the united crystals. Silently and invisibly. You could only sometimes sense their presence. When you feel a cool breeze on a warm day, when a door slams without reason, when a cloudy sky suddenly clears, only then can you sense the presence of the forest of the extinct species. My eyes were heavier than before, without lifting my head from the table my heart made a little pirouette, the inner dance of love is one of my favorites. My lungs were happy; this table of trees would provide fresh air for the night. Ultimately I would wake up again, like before, with a mouth dry as cardboard and a head the weight of the entire table inside.
This little journey did end with the sound of a slamming door….no reason….welcome forest of the lost species…are you going to take me home?
Marcel Wanders
