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Francisco-based Frances Binnington creates works in verre églomisé,
an ancient technique in which gold or silver leaf is applied to the back
of glass, etched to create a design and then backed with pigments. She first
began this painstaking craft in the 1970s, and she does it all herself,
by hand. Mirrors (right) and tabletops are some of the most popular requests
but she also created a green-and gold-woven fretwork design to "wallpaper"
a room (left) full of Orientalist trompe l’oeil.
After a five-year
sabbatical, when she took up painting, Frances Binnington is now combining
traditional painting with gold leafing and is using fabric to back the glass.
"You can sandwich textiles between layers of glass," she says.
"I just went to China and got scraps of antique embroidery."
"verre églomisé dates back to ancient Rome and it went in and out
of fashion through the centuries," she explains. "It was popular
in Bohemia and the Russians used it—there’s a lot of it at the
Hermitage." The most recent vogue was in the 1930s, when rooms called
for shimmering, luxurious surfaces. A current project of Binnington’s
is a set of 12 door panels in a modern, silvered motif reminiscent of the
Art Déco period. Frances Binnington, 415/566-0962.
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