Xavier Montoy

Beetle mania

• Xavier was always fascinated by living creatures
• He uses beetle shells to craft furniture and jewellery
• His objects are a call to contemplate today's world

Xavier Montoy is a French-born furniture and jewellery designer captivated by the living. His personal approach aims at creating bridges between biology and design by making objects from innovative materials. He developed a material made from responsibly sourced shells of Sternocera beetles, which are transformed into cellulose acetate plates studded with fragments of elytra (the upper part of the shell covering the wings). By preserving and sublimating fragments of this declining life, he invites us to delve into the symbolism around insects, their growing rarity and their little-known aesthetic characteristics.

Interview

©Xavier Montoy

©Xavier Montoy

How is your craft related to your territory?

I create a material that expresses the fragility of the living world. I tell the life cycle of the Sternocera beetles. I justify prolonging their existence in a material that I consider just as precious as a rare metal or stone.

How would you define what you do?

I create from resources of the living world in order to accompany the general public in the (re)discovery of the latter. I redefine what should be considered precious, given the environmental upheavals of our time.

What do people not usually know about your work?

I am a very doubtful person. The shape of each object that I produce goes through a set of multiple iteration phases with sometimes minimal changes. When I finally like one of these iterations, I decide that the object is finished.

What does well done mean to you?

For me, the intention that gives birth to an idea is as important as the materialisation of this idea. I attach as much importance to the resource as to the techniques. A new object, today, should be a conscious witness of our world. It is not enough for it to be well executed.

Xavier Montoy is a rising star he began his career in 2019

Works

©leonard olivero

©Xavier Montoy

©Xavier Montoy

©leonard olivero

©Veronique Huygue

Where