One of Aurelien Dore's new line of murrini-based bowties, with fabric by comadesign. photo: caroline laberge
The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet recently covered how one Montreal fashion designer is continuing to use glass in his haute couture line for Spring 2011. Another product of the glass artist/fashion designer collaboration held as part of the Montreal “City of Glass” Fashion Show last June is a new line of glass bowties being launched by French artist Aurélien Doré, who collaborated with Dimitri Chris on a man’s suit festooned with murrini badges. Now, Doré hopes to continue with wearable art with this colorful line of kilnformed neckware that turned heads during the annual Ennion Society dinner at The Corning Museum of Glass last week where one design was modeled by Laura Donefer‘s husband, Dave Hickie.
Aurelien Dore's patterns are inspired by Art Deco, and cold-working makes it difficult to see they're made from glass.
After studying and working in his native France at the European Research and Training Glass Arts Center known as CERFAV and doing a year-long apprenticeship in glassblowing with Gerard Torcheux at the Verrerie des Coteaux, Doré moved to Canada in 2007, where he worked for a time in Quebec at the Atelier des Arts de Feu (“Atelier of Fire Arts”), a cooperative glass and ceramic studio in Quebec City. Citing environmental concerns as well as limited access to glassblowing facilities, Doré began exploring other ways of realizing designs in glass.
Before launching the bowtie line, Doré was exploring boldly patterned perfume bottles.
As he writes in his artist’s statement at the Hodgell Gallery in Sarasota, Florida, where he shows his perfume bottle line that predates his bowties: “I eliminate the less energy-efficient equipment commonly used for blown glass objects. Then I revisit and rehabilitate traditional techniques such as canes and “murrines” roll up and especially thermoformed glass plates. These different processes allow me to reintegrate and stylize the scraps and also glass residuals to make unique and valuable objects composed essentially of pure colors.”
Aurelien Dore's kiln-formed bowties offer men a chance to make a splash with bold wearable artwork (with fabric by comadesign). photo: caroline laberge
While kiln-formed jewelry using murini to create bold patterns has become well-established for women’s jewelry, Doré‘s bowties offer men a chance to also sport glass as bold wearable art. Those who don one of Doré‘s creations should be prepared for questions about what the vividly chromatic designs are made from since they are heavily cold-worked to dull their glassy surfaces and disguise the material.“I’m interested in playing with the texture in a way that the glass appearance becomes misleading: we don’t know anymore if it’s glass or ceramic, stone, marble, or even textile. So I create an ambiguity of the identity of the material,” explains Doré in his written statement.
To contact Doré, connect through his Facebook page or via email at glassdore@hotmail.fr