La Maison du Pastel
May 12, 2024 5:30 PM Subscribe
A tour of a 300 year old business that makes pastels in nearly 2000 colors [youtube - 2024/05/12 Business Insider]
On reading the history behind it, it's amazing how the business has managed to survive over the years by finding new caretakers over and over.
More videos featuring La Maison du Pastel
On reading the history behind it, it's amazing how the business has managed to survive over the years by finding new caretakers over and over.
More videos featuring La Maison du Pastel
That is some history for an art supply house.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:33 PM on May 12 [2 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:33 PM on May 12 [2 favorites]
I remember the shop from a previous submission (sort-of readable via archive link) - the kind place you hope never closes!
posted by pulposus at 6:54 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]
posted by pulposus at 6:54 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]
I once signed up for a summer class making pastels. Unfortunately the instructor became ill and the class was canceled. Funny, I had no desire to make art with pastels but I really wanted to learn how to make the pastels themselves.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:56 PM on May 12 [4 favorites]
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:56 PM on May 12 [4 favorites]
For the collectors among you, the full set of about 2000 colors will cost a hair under €30,000, or about €15 per pastel. There are plenty of petite roche sets in the more modest €60 range.
posted by rh at 8:54 PM on May 12 [3 favorites]
posted by rh at 8:54 PM on May 12 [3 favorites]
Thank you for posting this, I feel like I really needed to see this tonight.
I am an artist, I paint and draw, and things like this are endlessly fascinating.
I don't use pastels, but that doesn't mean that I don't love watching them being made.
So much history in that shop, and it's amazing that it's still there.
For years I worked in the oil screen printing industry, nothing very artistic about what we made, but for 6 or so of those years I was a full time ink mixer and matcher. That is, I prepared the inks we used for printing and I had to match colour by eye balling the a sample or a Pantone colour or what have you. Kind of horrible work but it did give me an immense knowledge of colour, which I use in my paintings. So, seeing something like this means an awful lot to me because I have done the grim, industrial version of this and on some level I think working at a place like this would be an ideal dream job for me.
Anyways, so happy to have seen this. Ands, I don't think I will switch to pastels anytime soon; too late in the game for me.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 10:10 PM on May 12 [5 favorites]
I am an artist, I paint and draw, and things like this are endlessly fascinating.
I don't use pastels, but that doesn't mean that I don't love watching them being made.
So much history in that shop, and it's amazing that it's still there.
For years I worked in the oil screen printing industry, nothing very artistic about what we made, but for 6 or so of those years I was a full time ink mixer and matcher. That is, I prepared the inks we used for printing and I had to match colour by eye balling the a sample or a Pantone colour or what have you. Kind of horrible work but it did give me an immense knowledge of colour, which I use in my paintings. So, seeing something like this means an awful lot to me because I have done the grim, industrial version of this and on some level I think working at a place like this would be an ideal dream job for me.
Anyways, so happy to have seen this. Ands, I don't think I will switch to pastels anytime soon; too late in the game for me.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 10:10 PM on May 12 [5 favorites]
I think this is the place visited from about the 22:08 point by the fantastic Waldemar Januszczak in one of his fantastic art documentaries which you should all watch.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:38 AM on May 13 [4 favorites]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:38 AM on May 13 [4 favorites]
A detail left out this time is that they're romantic partners as well, which adds a certain something about settling down with your soulmate in an old family business to live out your days taking the morning off together if you don't feel like making new pastels.
posted by fatbird at 9:13 AM on May 13 [3 favorites]
posted by fatbird at 9:13 AM on May 13 [3 favorites]
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posted by tristeza at 6:25 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]