Bug Addict

Silkworm cocoon set, by Marlène Huissoud and London Bronze Casting.

- Rosa Betroli

French-born designer Marlène Huissoud has always experimented with the natural world. Her early projects, developed as part of her Material Futures master’s at London’s Central Saint Martins, grew into a series called From Insects, which used various bugs and larvae as ‘collaborators’ in the creation of new materials.

Since graduating in 2014, she has been looking at the contribution bees and silkworms can offer the design world. ‘It all started with my family’s background,’ she says. ‘I grew up in the French Alps around my father’s beehives, and I have always been fascinated by the creativity of insects.’

Huissoud is on the roster of London design gallerist Sarah Myerscough, a champion of highly-skilled artisans who celebrate the organic. Huissoud is used to experimenting with artisanal techniques, and her natural starting point has been expanded to incorporate and combine materials such as discarded glass, honeybee bio resin and metal, always mixing the natural with the artificial.