The duo Frugale Studio, made up of Anna Talec (set designer) and Julie Brugier (research designer), explores and stages frugal resources and know-how rooted in rural and agricultural contexts. Intentionally grounded in the territories where they work, the designers address issues of sustainability and ecology. During their residency, they focused on the hemp industry, currently experiencing a strong revival in the Poitou-Charentes region, with the aim of developing and promoting this local material while investigating its relationship with glass. Their objective was to establish a dialogue between agriculture and habitat, between the rusticity of hemp straw and the sophistication of glass.

Research Project at the Foundation

The research takes as its starting point the plant fibres found fossilized in underground strata and uncovered by palaeontologists: how can a fragile and ephemeral material such as plant fibre survive through time? How can a medium like glass—deliberately chosen for its counterintuitive ability to preserve an imprint—carry this trace? Guided by these questions, the project unfolds through an investigation of local hemp straw resources, documentation of traditional local farming tools, meetings with winegrowers to discuss vine waste, and an introduction to glassblowing. The designers also engage with archaeological research teams conducting excavations in the region. By bringing together materials and stories, they produced a first series of samples aimed at making traces of plant fibres visible within glass.

Residency Outcomes

This experimentation resulted in a collection of glass artefacts whose surface textures and colours form the core of the research. The surfaces are irregular and marked by the textures present within the blowing moulds: as the molten glass adheres to the mould walls, it preserves the traces of fibres placed at the bottom of the mould. The project’s production process also explores materials that make it possible to create rudimentary counter-moulds using plant waste from wine production alongside fibres derived from hemp cultivation.

Connection to the Almanach Lab

This material experimentation project sits at the intersection of a narrative about the fragility of living matter subjected to the long timescales of geological formation, a reflection on the use of fire (an energy-intensive process dependent on fossil resources) as a dominant mode of production, and an exploration of the aesthetics of traces. Through design research, these perspectives bring together geological deep time and aesthetic objects: how can a sensory message be translated into matter? How can it be read and understood? Frugale Studio’s project leaves these questions open for others to engage with.

Resources Mobilised

• The Foundation’s glass workshop
• Winegrowers: Guy Pinard & Fils, Foussignac (Charente, France)
• Chanvre Mellois, Melleran (Deux-Sèvres, France)