Mineral materials in the luxury industry

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PAINTING WITH MINERAL MATERIALS

CAROLINE BESSE’S BACKGROUND, A PAINTER-DECORATOR
Study of calligraphic techniques
  • Breathing and line gesture management
  • Paper absorbing the ink
Ink painting
  • Transparency (Shan Shui painting)
  • Mists of shades of grey
  • Overlay techniques and tailored shades
Gold leaf sprinkling
Traditional Japanese painting with crushed minerals
  • Coming from sacred Buddhist painting, this type of painting addresses very contemplative topics- cosmology, nature, fauna, flora, etc
  • Tradition imported from Chine in the 8th century that is extremely developed in Japan
  • Unlike the Europeans, the Japanese have developed many more crushed minerals colors and tones
  • Intensity, color quality of minerals, colors coming directly from the earth
  • Crushed grains with different grain sizes and beautiful grips
  • Challenge of converting this traditional technique into painted decoration

HOW TO GET PAINT FROM FROM GROUND STONES

HOW ARE STONES CRUSHED?
  • The stones are placed into cups
  • The binder and a little water are added for the preparation
  • Color overlay, no mixture so as to obtain tailor-made shades
THE COLOR CHART
The larger the grain, the darker the mineral color, the finer the grain, the lighter the mineral color as there is more light hanging around the grain
Palette of yellow tones

Gold yellow pepper, jasper, golden garnet, tiger eye, bronzite, carnelian

Palette of red tones

Hematite in red tones, cinnabar colors (very rich red in Japan), jasper, coral

Palette of green tones

Fluorite, malacchite (green, serpentine (more yellow), yellow & green agate, darker malacchite. The Japanese heat the malacchite and azurrites to change the color and get deeper turquoise or green tones

Palette of blue tones

Very intense pilazuli, sodalite, azurite

CAROLINE BESSE’S PROJECTS

B2C project, 7th district flat in Paris

Rimowa site, Hong Kong landmark

Van Cleef & Arpels, Place Vendôme, Paris, representation of the mists over the mountains

  • Mixture of various micas
  • Cloudy vibe can also be done on a black background
  • Panel protection with natural varnish
  • Panels mounted directly on the walls, on a tapered frame or on dibon, thin and lightweight aluminium panel
  • Restorative and reversible glue, reversible, not yellowing over time

Sources: 7th edition of the “Rendez-vous de la matière” Zoom on mineral materials in the luxury industry, Archistorm webinar, Caroline Besse