Garden art

Maria Jeglinska

For her first collaboration with Tectona, the French-Polish designer Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska imagined trays in lacquered wood illustrated with a floral design. Like works of art, they invite contemplation – here through the subtle interplay between stylised motifs and spring hues.

Trays for contemplation

With its slender silhouette and its long stems teeming with flowers, hollyhock is a particular source of inspiration for Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska. This wild plant embellishes gardens and grows where we don’t expect it to grow, from pavements to field edges. Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska explains how serving trays became the latest habitat of hollyhock.

« For this project, I wanted to find inspiration in the world of gardening, in keeping with Tectona’s DNA. This flower, which I love, is widespread in France but also in Poland and all Baltic countries. It seemed to me a brilliant analogy for connecting my two cultures. »

A prolific designer

As part of their ongoing mission to seek out singular talents, Tectona were delighted to entrust a project to Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska, whose trajectory and aesthetic vision are outstanding. After completing her studies at ECAL, the prestigious school of art and design in Lausanne, she launched her career at Kreo gallery in Paris where she was responsible for the production of pieces by the designer Konstantin Grcic. This experience held her in good stead, as she went on to found her own design and research studio in Warsaw in 2012. Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska has worked on a wide range of projects: industrial design, exhibition design, furniture, and has the firm conviction that multidisciplinarity generates pertinent responses to contemporary issues. This openness has led her to collaborate with international brands and large institutions, from the Saint-Étienne International Design Biennial to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. She also maintains a close relationship with Villa Noailles in Hyères, having been a finalist in the Design Parade competition for young designers.

« I imagined the tray as a framed drawing, to be placed against a wall, in the kitchen or elsewhere. I like the idea that this object evokes something other than its primary function,» she explains. The motifs, inspired by the stems and buds of hollyhock, were first drawn by hand because, in her words, « I wanted people to feel that movement. The retranscription of my drawing is enhanced by the quality and the subtlety of the lacquer ».

Daily poetry

For Tectona, Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska created the decor for four trays in lacquered wood, transforming an everyday functional object into a new medium for artistic expression. As for colours, Maria Jeglinska-Adamczewska works with a palette of greens, from forest green to meadow green. These cool spring hues combine to create a rhythm and a soft contrast. With the Alcea tray collection, the designer contributes to the beautification of the everyday environment through expressive and evocative objects.