DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: Thesaurus, treasure in Latin, symbolizes the treasures that have been trapped by the passage of time. In some cases these treasures are visible, and in others, they are only in the memories and feelings of people. Swarovski crystals collect these emotions expressing them in their infinite sparkles.
This piece is an exotic symbiosis between the natural warmth of the wood with its sinuous organic lines, and the elegance and opulence of the crystals.
14,000 crystals of different sizes, from the Elements series, are carefully imbedded one by one in the natural fissures of this centenary olive trunk.
A seeming crystal vertebral column arises from the black marble, which symbolizes the earth, extending vertically until it reaches the surface of the glass plate, in the shape of an olive leaf.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: We found this trunk in the wild. It was a rare organic formation since there was a dead zone of the trunk that the exterior was trying to reabsorb inside the trunk.
It was as if the trunk was trying to hide a treasure, so we did what the tree was asking and placed infinite Swarovski crystals in all the dead areas.
We liked the idea of uniting in one piece materials so aesthetically opposed as Swarovski crystals and a centenarian olive trunk that we found in the wild.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: Exhibit the piece internationally and find a great new home for it.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
: Many months, the whole process was a creation by emotions, no planning, no preconceived ideas.
We found by chance the trunk of an Olive tree and we had it many months in the workshop, waiting for it to tell us something.
Once it was clear that we needed to cover all the dead areas with flashing crystals, we made an estimate of the number of units needed and the result was overwhelming, the estimation was between 10.000 and 15.000 crystals!
After that, the meticulous handcraft work began in our studio, we sanded the whole trunk and began to place with a magnifying glass and a brush every single tiny glass by hand, one by one, many of them of only 2mm in diameter.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: As mentioned above, it was purely emotional, the result of chance of finding that trunk in the wild and become inspired by it.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
: Given the nature of the design, it cannot be reproduced as an industrial piece.
We thought about making several editions looking for new trunks, but for the moment we decided to leave the magic to this one of a kind piece, unique in the world.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
: We like to try and combine materials and the union of a wooden trunk with Swarovski crystals seemed an interesting mix to try to carry it out.
DI: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
: It was a process inspired by nature, in this case people were left out ... hahaha
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: Like in the major part of our studio creations, our customers Art & Design Collectors and people with a special sensitivity for design.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
: It is a very unique piece, every time someone observes it gets astonished by the contrast of materials, by how capricious and beautiful nature can be, and by the great amount of work that takes to make a piece like this.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: Thesaurus, from the Latin treasure. Represents the treasures that are trapped by time.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
: Possibly this is the most handcrafted work we have done, without a single plan, not a single sketch, all was the result of observing and experimenting with what nature gave us.
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
: We think that it only takes to observe the piece, nature gives us unique and unrepeatable forms and we were fortunate to be able to use one of them.
DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
: No, in this case, we developed ourselves all the bulk of the craftwork.
DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
: In this case and in total contrast to many of the pieces of the studio, technology only played an anecdotal role in cutting the glass top of the table in the shape of an olive leaf.
DI: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
: No, in this case none.
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: Quite a lot, the first thing was what to do with a piece of coarse trunk.
Once the idea was outlined the most challenging work was the placement of the 14,000 crystals of Swarovski, one by one with the help of a magnifying glass and a clip, in the case of the smaller crystals was used a wet brush to be able to place them by capillarity.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
: We were invited to participate in this competition; it is not something that we had foreseen.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
: We learned to load ourselves with patience to see the final result of the idea we had in mind, after months of work it become just as we had imagined it.
This has helped us later on to create any complex design, which usually takes months since you first visualize the idea in your mind until the piece is realized.
We also developed our skills of manual work in the workshop, for us is important not only to work under the concept on a sheet of paper or a computer, but to know how to create projects with our hands.