Pergolato
Stardust
We are made of stardust. Recent research into the genealogy of matter reveals that a vast proportion of the atoms composing our small planet were born from the collapse, explosion, and dispersal of distant stars across the cosmos. Like the twinkling of starlight and the reflection of the moon, the lamps in the Stardust series are fragments of illumination that comfort and guide us through the night.
Here, their glow is cradled in bamboo, like a gem held delicately in a jeweller’s setting, combining lightness with refinement. The fabrics that diffuse their radiance also tell a story. They are cyanotype-dyed batiks, created using ancestral techniques and natural materials. In Javanese, the word batik carries two meanings: “to break” and “to draw.” The lampshade patterns arise sometimes from blowing hot wax, sometimes from the cold cracking of the dye. Each technique reveals the creative potential in the fragmentation of matter and the transformative power of impact.
We are made of stardust,
These lanterns contain fragments of it,
Faraway lights still alive,
Precious treasures we should protect like jewels,
And the fabric that diffuses their light tells a story,
Broken, scattered, lost, forgotten, found again,
Like the ancestral arts of bamboo and batik,
Rebuild, creator.
Tobie Chevallier designs and creates objects and furniture as an independent designer-craftsman in Paris.
His pieces invite new ways of living, in a respectful and sensitive relationship to the world. Trained in industrial design at ENSAAMA - Olivier de Serre (Paris), then at Central Saint Martins (London), he now focuses on developing projects with the best environmental and social impact, combining bio-sourced materials such as wood or bamboo with other little-processed or reused materials. He draws on their specific characteristics to guide his design. In this way, he explores the forming processes, looking for contrasts and encounters that generate the unexpected, combining industrial and artisanal know-how.
Tobie Chevallier’s creations were presented at New York Design Week 2019, at the “Frugal” exhibition for Paris Design Week 2021, at ChangeNOW 2022 and 2023 at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, and at the “Entrelacs - Histoires de vies” exhibition in the Salin des Pesquiers, Hyères in 2024.