The marriage of materials that are typically placed at opposite ends of the aesthetic spectrum produce results that are often delightful or nauseating. Cape Town based artist and designer Michou Osterwald has created an artistic dichotomy that transcends all pre-conceptions of the mediums involved.

Michou learnt the ancient technique known as water-gilding from a master gilder, Andrea Crasemann, in Hamburg, using classical motifs such as mirror frames and other traditionally gilded items.

Water-gilding was born in ancient Egypt more than 5,000 years ago. Throughout the civilizations that practiced gilding, including the Greeks, Romans, Scandinavians and most of Europe, the art was always traditionally used for treasured objects.

Used on Egyptian funerary masks, the sacred sarcophagi, cathedrals and churches, the palaces of kings and queens, in the scrolls and ornaments of Baroque and Rococo interiors and frames of valuable paintings, gilding has always adorned the world's most precious artifacts and formal ornaments.

For more than fifteen years Michou practiced water-gilding only in the traditional way. One day Michou, “struck upon the idea to gild the African bowls sold on roadsides to tourists that visit southern Africa. I was terribly curious to see how I could make it work”.

She started embellishing hand-made bowls carved by artisans across Africa from woods such as wild olive, jacaranda and Zimbabwean teak, using gold or silver leaf to garnish the raw shapes in a contrasting yet symbiotic way.

Michou uses 23.75-carat gold leaf, genuine silver leaf or green golds made up of special alloys. The precious metal that Michou uses is molten, milled, beaten and hand-lifted into booklets, leaf for leaf at 0.000125mm thinness, just as it has been done for thousands of years.

Each bowl that Michou creates is completely unique and requires several hours of creative and manual labour. Each piece is an artwork, a one of a kind object that serves to be enjoyed purely for its aesthetic innovation and unusual partnership of exciting and exotic materials.

The works are available at In Toto Gallery: 6 Birdhaven Centre, 66 st. Andrew Street, Birdhaven (011 447 6543). Or visit Michou’s website: www.michou.co.za.