Laser-pierced wood, finished by hand in the Beaujolais
For a pendant light, it all begins with a plank of raw beech, chosen by hand for its grain and density. In Anse, in the Beaujolais, a few kilometres from Lyon, Nicolas Poupet first draws the pattern, then hands it over to the laser cutter. Here the openwork is not ornament: it is what lets the light through. Then come assembly, progressive sanding and a natural oil, all by hand.
The workshop works mainly in solid wood: oak, beech, walnut, maple. From it come pendants, wall lights and lamps that cast a play of shadows across the room, as present switched off as switched on. Then handbags with rigid wooden bodies, where flowers, scrolls and butterflies are not printed but taken away from the material, and whose grain changes from one piece to the next. Engraved boxes and caskets follow, along with laser-cut earrings and wooden accessories for role-playing games.
Most pieces can be personalised with a laser-engraved name, date or motif. The workshop can be visited by appointment; the website already gives a sense of everything wood becomes once light passes through it.
Laser cutting designed for light rather than ornament, then hands that take over where the machine stops: assembly, sanding, oil. Handbags whose patterns are removed from the wood, not printed onto it. And a village workshop in the Beaujolais that opens its doors by appointment.
