Bethan Laura Wood graduated from the Royal College of Art in the UK, and has held a master’s degree in product design. She pays attention to the materials, handcraft, colors and details. Her works show the essence of “natural art”, by unique inspiration and rich color matching, she creates distinctive visual art works.Bethan Laura Wood cooperates closely with luxury brands like Hermès and Dior.

In the Master Class, Bethan Laura Wood introduces her theory background in color perception, and the color using in her work, starting her class by sharing the motive in practice and the influence produced in interaction with colors. As a multidisciplinary designer, Bethan Laura Wood works on color, combination, placement and material in design. Most of her color knowledge come from practice and continuous study. Through work and project she sees the color, seemly stable, could actually be dynamically unstable, which explains why she loves color. By talking about her color world and the color using in her works, Bethan Laura Wood analyses how her works help her to know and feel the color through experiment, machining and dialogue. 

Yinjispace：Do you receive the influence from painters?

Yes. There are many painters and artists influencing my work. I enjoy these exhibitions and performances with striking colors. For example, the artist Eduardo Paolozzi. This is a reference for me a few times. I love Yayoi Kusama’s work, especially those later period’s. She uses a lot of colors and I like the dynamic feeling. I show you a paint of Matisse, his paper-cut work. And the way he draws on the paper, also his painted glasses. Another artist I like for many years is David Hockney. Many artists influence me, you could feel the influence in the tapis that I design for CC-Tapis. In the two lock-down periods of UK, I go to the exhibition of Oberli Biazle and be greatly influenced by it. In there, I realize his beauty in using single color and the complication of details he does in those small illustrations. 

Yinjispace：In your design, how do intuition, experience and knowledge coordinate with each other?

They cooperate with each other simultaneously. I keep understanding this world better through better understanding for colors. As the wine taster of Perrier Jouet, he could know the world by smell. That’s why he can be a wine taster, for he has the ability to telling the tiny difference of smell, and dynamically relating them to berry, particular time and cask, which my nose could never do. But there are too much information in colors: time, place and experience. Through what I learn in RCA, I know how to transfer what I am seeing into what I am doing. 

Yinjispace：When you work together with the supplier, what would you do with the less quantity of materials?

I keep dealing with these problems, and I learn to be tolerant, especially in mosaic. Many mosaic works, such as the carpet I made when I graduated ten years ago, mixed laminates in it are no longer produced. I only use a few precious color blocks to mix with commercially available materials at that time. The project has spanned a decade, and the laminated materials that can be seen everywhere at the beginning have become scarce. If I don't realize that the laminated material is no longer produced and there is no reserve, I must pay attention to whether there is any material or change the color to a special color, so that I can control its proportion. The color I couldn't find at the beginning suddenly became a popular color in the past ten years. I can use it in a large amount in mosaic because there are many resources. I learned to contain the color of materials and its own Timeline, which is the life of materials. It's a little annoying now. If customers need the art materials I used to use, I can't find that kind of laminate anymore.

Yinjispace：Would you pay attention to the Pantone color of the year?

No, I won't pay attention to it, which will make me unable to focus on the work at hand. Usually, a certain color has become popular. It is too late to use it then. It should have been used a few years ago. Many popular colors are helpful for interior design and the secondary design of finished products. As I said, the products of Ronsenthal will be produced in large quantities in the industry. I don't need to check whether some colors will be popular in the near future. Coral is like this. If I issue this tea set in a year, I may not choose coral for it. Because in the development, this color will be selected as the theme color of that year. I didn't know at that time. Fortunately, it wasn't selected as the color of the year before.

Yinjispace：Have you ever worked with Chinese clients? Your impression about Chinese colors?

I haven't worked directly with Chinese brands. But I import silicon glass from China, because the color produced in your country is not available in Europe. Of course, Chinese materials have been used. The suitcases of Salone exhibition last September and Saloni exhibition two weeks ago are related to pre epidemic travel. Some projects invited me and CC Tapis to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. I took many photos. I hope that the restrictions would be reduced after the epidemic, and I would have the opportunity to cooperate with Chinese companies and craftsmen to learn Chinese technology. I know you have rich color resources. I began the block-down life when I first came into contact with Chinese color. I have made reference, but I haven't had time to interact directly with Chinese brand.