Anne Roubault-Teysseyre

Chairy Tales

Upholsterer

©Anne Roubault-Teysseyre

Covering chairs with poetry

Anne is a mainly self-taught upholsterer
She covers chairs with recycled needlepoint canvases
Her seats are poetic and ecological

Anne Roubault-Teysseyre opened her studio Chairy Tales in 2021, after a decade of training herself in upholstery and learning from master artisans. “I became an upholsterer by chance,” she says. “The love for nostalgic needlepoint canvases and a desire to restore and re-use them led me to make my first creations.” At Chairy Tales, Anne covers various kinds of chairs – modern, designer, vintage seats and office chairs – with often romantic and sometimes funny needlepoint tapestries, turning them into pieces that tell a poetic tale. “I bring these textiles back to life by creating seats that are not only original and useful, but also sustainable and ethical.” Her main source of inspiration is art: photography, poetry, novels, and on goes the list. Anne works together with her partner Gaëtan Noël, who provides technical help.

Interview

©Anne Roubault-Teysseyre

©Anne Roubault-Teysseyre

Is there something about your work that generally makes people wonder?: People are often puzzled by the needlepoint canvases that I work with. They cannot tell exactly what they are, while they have all seen them around in their family home or that of their grandparents.
How do you express tradition and innovation in your creations?: I promote the ‘modest art’ of women working on needlepoint tapestry and combine it with contemporary craftsmanship by integrating the canvases in modern furniture.
Could your craft be considered in danger?: The upholstery techniques I apply are not in danger, but the problem is that the textiles I use, the needlepoint canvases, are unfortunately becoming increasingly rare.
A word about the city where your studio is located, Charleroi?: Charleroi is a city close to my heart in the south of Belgium. It has a mining past, which is very meaningful to me, because I was born in a mining city in Morocco – Jerada. Chairy Tales has also been strongly supported by a centre in Lens, France, another town with a mining past.

Anne Roubault-Teysseyre is a rising star: she began her career in 2021