Personalities

Beaded Beauty – an interview with Marijke de Cock

Delicate beads, glass, brass and oak are what Marijke De Cock uses to construct her remarkable pieces. But instead of fashioning precious jewelry to adorn a neckline or a wrist, the artist and designer from Antwerp creates dynamic sculptures. Influenced by the years she spent working for fashion designer Dries Van Noten and driven by a deep fascination for intuitive handcrafts, De Cock produces wall objects that celebrate modern abstract art as well as traditional techniques. She begins the creative process by surrendering herself to it entirely and allowing her hand to glide freely across a piece of paper. Her drawings are the foundation for works that live somewhere between art and design, pieces that appear to dance in space and move about a room. Like an article of high fashion, each piece is brought to life by the meticulous hand application of thousands of glass beads – an embroidery technique that creates a dynamic landscape where light and shadow merge. The result is an ornament for the soul of a home and an invitation to follow its shifting rhythms in space.