This series, COLLECTIBLE In-Depth, unveils the backstage of contemporary creation. Tackling various topics from personal designer processes to the position of collectible design on the global design market, COLLECTIBLE In-Depth offers different views to suit all tastes. Today we speak with Frédéric Saulou.

Back to Editorial

COLLECTIBLE: Can you talk about a new piece / collection that you release for COLLECTIBLE this year?

Frédéric Saulou: I recently created a new series called DELTA from a new direction of work.

I explore a more “futuristic” and controlled universe as opposed to my brutalized and primitive work that I am used to. This new collection is representative of what has always inspired me: manufacturing processes and the link to architecture and materials.

We find stone as a major element that I explore here through a more conceptual and composed, more graphic and sculptural vision.

I enhance the mineral stone by connecting it to the glass, notably through two curved glass pieces which demonstrate the technicality of the association.

C: How did you get into collectible design? Why did you focus your practice on this type of design rather than industrial design?

FS: This happened 9 years ago, by chance, when I was focusing more on editorial design.

I had a deep desire to promote my territory, where I was born, local mineral materials and know-how related to architecture. The materials being slate and limestone from buildings.

From there, I worked in another way with a freer and more plastic approach linked to the material. I also brought another dimension, Sculpture, by training and working on my pieces, on the border between art and design.

I therefore focused on pieces in limited, more exclusive series and I began to work with galleries and collectors.

C: What is your favorite material?

FS: My favorite material is stone. I am totally absorbed by the beauty and energies of the stones. They are everywhere and participate in our history, in our humanization, it is the cradle of our civilization. We created tools for hunting and spooning, for creating fire, glass, then for building.

It is a powerful and age-old material that inspires and nourishes me. The stone is the fruit of erosion, of earth movements which generated crystallizations, magmatizations, which gave rise to the stone. It's incredible !

It is a material with interesting characteristics, both primitive and contemporary in these new applications.