DB: Do you find that you go through color periods?
BLW: Yes, this is definitely something that you can see in my work, but I choose to be a bit involved with it. Some of my early London-based work has a particular palette that is more associated with the UK, more grays and pastels.
When I first went to Mexico, it had a huge impact on the palettes I work with and my understanding of the intricacies of color, such as using stronger colors as the main color rather than an accent. My palette definitely changed a lot after Mexico. Many cities and places have influenced me color-wise or I have specifically designed color palettes around them.
For the most recent projects for the Uzbek Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) installation in Milan, I created a color palette specifically for them. This one had some of my favorite greens, not actually my favorite green, but one that connected to a green I found while working there. Their very special warm orange tone: these for me were Tashkent lemons, which are these really beautiful tasting lemons that are quite orange in their color palette.
Bethan Laura Wood for the CC-Tapis Collection, Super Rock, 2018. Photo Giulia Soldavini.
Bethan Laura Wood for CC-Tapis Collection, Super Rock, 2018.
root smoothness and wood slats
DB: This month we are exploring the theme of ‘radical softness’ which can be described as the power of emotional vulnerability, so we were naturally drawn to the sensitive use of colors and materials. Do you remember a moment when you really hit your stride in your aesthetic?
BLW: When I figured out how to work with laminates, that was a really big deal. I obsessively photograph what I would call “public patterns” and collect this patchwork of patterns that I would see from street markings to marble on the walls of a laundromat to veneers in a bank.
I was interested in why one bank would go for a hardwood veneer while another would have an edge that pretended to be plywood – and what that would mean! I was really fascinated with these surfaces that we consider to be, just surfaces. But really, it goes very deep into how we emotionally connect to a space and why certain materials or choices are made.
I realized I could work with the laminate by talking it to itself. When I did these tests and realized that I could do this marquetry with it, it really opened up this way to celebrate and work with all these existing patterns while also adding a layer of pattern that came from digesting it.
It wasn’t just taking these patterns and like making a mashup. There was an editing or a re-creation of a different conversation between them depending on the proportionality of how I used them. You would notice a laminate that has a slight texture more than one that is say matte or glossy because when you put them side by side you really see those subtle differences.
The designer’s chandelier for Baccarat, Mille Fleurs, 2026. Photo by Nicolas Receveur.
The designer’s chandelier for Baccarat, Mille Fleurs, 2026. Photo by Nicolas Receveur.
The designer’s collection for Baccarat, Mille Fleurs, 2026. Photo Nicolas Receveur.
Mexico City and an evolving design language
DB: You’ve mentioned that Mexico and Mexico City have had a big impact on your design language.
BLW: The stars aligned! I won the W Hotels Designers of the Future award at Design Miami/Basel (in 2013). W Hotels sent each winning designer to a different city where they were developing or renovating a W Hotel, so potentially whatever you made would go up in the hotel.
I was very happy to be sent to Mexico. I had an introduction to the city and at the time, the wonderful designer Fernando Lopos was interning in my studio (I taught him everything he knows about marquetry!) The timing worked out perfectly because he was also returning to Mexico to see his family at the same time. I had to go to Mexico for the first time and he showed me someone like Fernando, who is so enthusiastic about Mexico and Mexico City and so knowledgeable about the history of the different art movements.
While in town I was asked to do a set of tasks with the brief: what happens when the local is global and the global is local. I was looking for a local producer that I could connect with another craftsman that I had been working with during a residency a while back. I like this idea of working with two people, very specifically locals, but in this global soup.
It was also my first time outside of Europe. I had been to Italy, which has a different palette. Venice in particular has a very particular, almost faded palette. But it’s really different when you suddenly go outside of Europe and realize that there’s a whole world that has different opinions about color. It’s amazing to go and learn from different ways of seeing and living with color.
