London gallery Matter of Stuff commissioned Polish designer Olga Bielawska to create what are being called Veiled marble side tables for its exhibition at the recent 2016 London Design Festival.
Bielawska takes slices of black and white marble that were cut with a waterjet cutting technique by Carrara Design Factory in Italy to create her desired pattern. The result is a table that offers the illusion that the marble table has been draped with striped silk.
Both of the Veiled tables, one circular and one oblong, boast marble columns to support the tabletop.
Bielawska used ancient Roman statuary and a bust called Veiled Virgin from the same period as the inspirations for her creation.
“It’s incredible because she has a textile over her face and it looks so real,” Bielawska said of the bust. “I wanted to create something that looks soft in one way, but with this hard material, so I came up with the idea of trying to make it two-dimensional.”
The Veiled tables were part of Matter of Stuff’s Curated by MOS exhibit at the 2016 London Design Festival at the ME London Hotel.