Rebecca Fezard (left) and Elodie Michaud in their workshop, Transfaire La Manufacture, in Neuvy-le-Roi (Indre-et-Loire), July 25, 2025. JULIE LIMONT
Outside, endless fields stretched in the Touraine countryside. Inside, across 270 square meters, curious functional sculptures. The location: Neuvy-le-Roi, a 30-minute drive from Tours, in the workshop of Rebecca Fezard, 40, and Elodie Michaud, 34, co-founders of Hors-Studio, established in 2016. This duo, with "two brains and four hands," as they put it, constantly invents new forms and materials. Their exceptional creativity earned them the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for the Manual Intelligence(Dialogues category) on October 16, following the Grand Prix de la Création from the Ville de Paris five years ago.
At the time, the two young women were transforming oyster shells into bricks. Now, they are turning discarded leather into stone. This novel material carries a registered name: "Leatherstone." "We couldn't file for a patent, since it's a craft process involving a blend of ingredients, basically a secret formula, like Coca-Cola's, to take a modest example!" joked Michaud, peeking out from beneath her short fringe.
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