Brave New Weld

Designer Marcin Rusak takes molten metal to artful new extremes.

Since his graduation from London’s Royal College of Art in 2014, the London-based Polish designer Marcin Rusak has become known for his organic creations, inspired partly by his family’s flower business and a childhood spent playing in abandoned glasshouses. For his first collection, Flora, he created a unique material made of dried flowers and petals encased in dark resin, and used it to fashion vases, lamps and furniture.

Having perfected the technique, and experimented with materials such as glass and exotic leaves, Rusak is now branching out. Making its debut at Brussels’ Collectible design fair in March, his newly founded brand MRM focuses on experimental metal manufacturing inspired by abstract painting. ‘I wanted to do something simpler, more minimal – to create pieces that would be contemporary and mix with vintage or modern design – but still very much based on process,’ Rusak says.