Maison Balzac

Maison Balzac was created in Australia in 2012 by French-born Elise Pioch Balzac. The first collection consisted of five perfumed candles, but the company later expanded into homeware and hand-blown coloured glass. Elise had previously worked at Hermes in Paris under Martin Margiela's artistic direction, then became a fashion buyer in Australia for Belinda and The Corner Shop. That career helps explain the visual logic of the current range. Drinking glasses and carafes, with candle holders, are treated as objects for arranging a table. Incense holders introduce a more playful sculptural line. Maison Balzac calls this approach jewellery for the table. The phrase is useful because it connects material and colour in display without claiming that the objects are jewellery. The business now has a boutique in Sydney's Strand Arcade as well as a Surry Hills address. For ORBIS, Maison Balzac is most legible as a French-Australian homeware studio whose path runs from fragrance into glass, with fashion-trained art direction shaping both categories.