The workshop opens early. By the time natural light begins to reach the high windows of the atelier, the first looms are already in motion — rhythmic, precise, unhurried.
Woven metal is not an industrial process dressed in artisanal language. It is genuinely slow work. A single square metre of a complex weave can take several days to complete, depending on the pattern density and the gauge of wire used. The weavers who produce Sophie Mallebranche panels develop an almost intuitive relationship with their materials — sensing tension, adjusting by hand, correcting before a flaw becomes visible.
The wire itself arrives in coils, already drawn to specification. Stainless steel, brass, copper, anodised aluminium — each behaves differently under the hands of a weaver. Stainless is forgiving and consistent. Brass has memory; it wants to return to its original form. Copper is soft but unforgiving of errors. Learning these temperaments takes years.
What emerges from the atelier is not simply a product. It is a record of decisions — hundreds of small choices made by skilled hands over hours and days. This is what distinguishes a Sophie Mallebranche installation from anything that can be produced at scale. The imprecision is not incidental. It is the point.
