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About the Project
Designed and engineered to be a subtle, yet impressive feature, the “Misty Willow” casts an illusion of a willow tree sitting just outside the window of the dining area. By leveraging on the translucent properties of glass, the feature achieved a trompe l’oeil effect through our signature combination of traditional and modern glass techniques including sandblasting, sandcarving, digital printing and lamination. The design team carefully placed the sketches and images in layers, and adjusted the right hues and gradations of light and shadow to create that optical illusion of depth.
As the feature would look different under varying lighting conditions, extensive experiments were conducted to determine the perfect density and tones to be used. The result: In the day, the sandblasted leaves are more visible, with depths of the veins visible. By night, with the blinds down and backlight on, the leaves disappear and their printed silhouettes emerge. Synergraphic’s team worked closely with DavidGrace Designs International to develop and produce this special feature.
Concept
From afar, they look like the drooping branches of a willow tree outside which may sway at any moment in the breeze. Three different kinds of glass techniques were used to create the 3d effect of leafy silhouettes on the sandblasted glass windows of this dining room in a private residence in district 9. The sketches and images here show the use of layering images on glass vis-a-vis a creative combination of techniques to achieve the trompe-l'oeil effect of actual willow leaves outside the window.
The base layer was done by sandblasting images of leaves on the glass, followed by another two layers of digital printing with the right hues and gradations of light and
shadow to create that optical illusion of depth.
Finally, as the overall ferature would look deffirent under natural and artificial lighting conditions, much experimentation was conducted to determine the density of the tones of grey and white used.
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