![]() Stephen Antonson: | Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler: sibylcolefax.You must locate at least one joist. It’s one of those things that comes along and asks, “Oh, can you do this?” With plaster, the possibilities are endless.’ ‘I’m making a 14-foot chandelier right now. Sure, I can make a chair for you, but I can’t promise it won’t break.’ This puzzle-like quality of plaster keeps the maker engaged. ‘Plaster blurs the line – it functions and it doesn’t. Ultimately, it is the duality of plaster that appeals to Stephen, who has found success crafting furniture, objects and lighting with the instincts of an artist as opposed to a furniture-maker. Whereas with plaster, you put it on and you have five minutes to make up your mind before it dries.’ Clay doesn’t push back – that would drive me crazy. Instead, he revels in the nature of the material, preferring to work by instinct: ‘I tried ceramics. ‘I hate the words product and merchandising,’ he admits. Then you go into the studio and have to make it with your own hands, thinking, is this stupid or will it work? I always have multiple what-if? projects on the go.’ Stephen shies away from launching fully articulated collections, preferring a more ad hoc approach. Stephen’s atelier is an ideas laboratory as much as a production facility: ‘I have sketchbooks lying around all over the place – I draw, draw, draw, draw. ‘We took one of his standard-model chandeliers, but he was willing to adapt and change the scale so it was the right size and, moreover, he was able to retain its good proportions.’ Roger was so pleased with the result, he commissioned several for Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler’s showroom in Pimlico Road, SW1, where Stephen’s work is now available to buy. He oversees production from beginning to end,’ Roger explains, adding that Stephen’s bespoke capabilities are attractive to an interior designer. ‘I was impressed as he is truly a hands-on craftsman, working on a small scale and making e everything himself. I was once asked, “Why do you get intimate with every piece of furniture?” but it would be so boring to have someone else fabricate a piece.’ His unilateral approach – from concept to execution – makes his work articularly compelling, according to Roger Jones of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, who discovered Stephen’s designs while working on a client’s living room in Connecticut and then visited his workshop. Stephen takes a hands-on approach, controlling each piece from start to finish. ‘I can build, paint, draw – I can connect all these dots.’ Serge Roche, Giacometti, John Dickinson – waves of people would pick up the material and redefine what is possible.’ He believes his advantage is in being able to straddle art and design, and move the medium in a new direction. ![]() ‘Interest in plaster has ebbed and flowed over time. ‘I walked into this world and found it attractive on so many levels,’ he explains. ‘Visitors would see artwork on the walls, but say: “How much for that chandelier? Could I take this drawing and that pair of lamps?”’ Stephen realised that his accidental foray into plaster had an eager – and profitable – audience in New York’s interior-design community. The erstwhile artist, who dabbled in painting, sculpture and photography after graduating from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University and receiving a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College in New York, would host prospective collectors in his Williamsburg loft. ‘Painting, sculpture, design – it’s a hybrid of all the things I love,’ says Stephen, who began working in the medium some 20 years ago when he made a plaster chandelier for fun. The designer’s sense of humour punctuates the rigorous mood with great éclat in a series of classical busts that collide with a pie to the face. Faux-bois mirrors and angular candlesticks show the breadth of Stephen’s range, from whimsy to modernist. Lithe and large Giacometti-esque chandeliers mingle with muscular and multifaceted tables that appear to be chiselled from densely packed Arctic snow. Stephen with an array of his plaster creations in his Brooklyn studio
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