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All but the most doctrinaire collectors, having snagged the requisite trophies -- a Kern Weber dining suite, a Billey Haines slipper chair - yearn for a few contemporary touches. Beatrice Tesdorpf's glass bowls and platters fill that bill nicely, which is party why the Southern California-based artisan has attracted such a following in Los Angeles, the starting point of the Modernist craze. Tesdorpf, a Swiss who lived in Paris before moving to the U.S., started off making stained glass windows for architects and decorators, but while studying at Dale Chihuly's Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle, she instead became enamored with fusing glass. "The idea of creating three dimensional shapes instantly attracted me, " recalls Tesdorpf, who soon developed a curvy, colorful aesthetic. "There are tons of glass fusers, but I came in with a different way of looking at it." Her pieces are often large - and reflect influences as disparate as Gucci and an exotic species of Mexican butterfly. But while he inspiration is of-th-moment, her technique is age-old, firing objects in a kiln at temperatures up to 1,500 degrees F. Recently, Tesdorpf turned the heat up even higher. Besides selling her line at Barneys New York, she's producing glassware in exclusive color palettes for Tiffany & CO. - which means working six days a week at her Malibou Lake studio, dividing her attention among assistant, phone, faxes, and two fox terriers. "It's wonderful," she says, laughing. "But my God, the pressure!"
DEANNA KIZIS for Elle Decor |
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