Stefano Poletti is a Paris-based artist and jewelry designer whose work has long defied classification, operating in the fertile space between sculpture, fashion, and conceptual design. Among his many creative explorations, one of the most arresting and unconventional bodies of work is his beaded gastronomy series—an ongoing investigation into food, consumption, and aesthetic pleasure rendered through the delicate, luminous medium of beads. In Poletti’s hands, edible forms are transformed into radiant objects, uniting sensory symbolism with visual decadence. His beaded renditions of fruits, desserts, and culinary still lifes are not mere imitations of food; they are poetic interpretations of appetite, indulgence, and the tension between the ephemeral and the eternal.
What distinguishes Poletti’s approach is his combination of craftsmanship and surreal wit. Trained as a designer with deep ties to both the haute couture and decorative arts worlds, he brings a sculptor’s intuition and a jeweler’s precision to every piece. His gastronomic subjects—be they clusters of grapes, glazed cherries, oysters on the half shell, or candied lemon slices—are lovingly rendered in shimmering seed beads, glass baubles, wire armatures, and resin. The materials themselves evoke the sensual qualities of food: the glisten of sugar, the sheen of fat, the translucence of flesh, the curve of ripeness. But Poletti’s pieces are never literal or overly realistic. Instead, they exist in a liminal space where food becomes fetish, fantasy, and form.
One of his signature techniques is the use of wire to construct three-dimensional skeletons upon which beads are meticulously stitched or wrapped. This skeletal structure allows the forms to float or curl, lending an airy lightness to even the most decadent subject matter. A strand of beaded raspberries may twist like a garland, catching light from every angle. A half-peeled fig might open into unexpected geometric planes, revealing a glittering center of magenta and gold. These are not inert replicas, but kinetic, almost living sculptures that seem to pulse with sensual energy.
Poletti’s color palette plays a vital role in the success of these illusions. He carefully selects his beads not just for hue but for finish—matte, pearlescent, iridescent, metallic—to mimic the complex textures of culinary ingredients. A simple cherry becomes an interplay of glossy reds, blackened shadows, and pink-gold highlights. The illusion is heightened by the way light dances across the surface of the beads, echoing the fleeting appeal of a perfectly prepared dish or an untouched piece of fruit. But where the real thing would eventually decay, Poletti’s beadwork arrests time, turning perishable matter into objets d’art.
His gastronomy pieces also speak to deeper themes within contemporary culture. By transforming food into precious, enduring objects, Poletti critiques our obsession with visual consumption. In a world where meals are photographed more than tasted and ingredients are fetishized beyond sustenance, his work plays with the idea of desire without satisfaction. The viewer is tempted by the exquisite forms but is left only with their aesthetic, not their flavor. This tension is not accidental. Poletti’s beaded strawberries or candied violets are both celebration and provocation—exquisite, useless, and hauntingly beautiful.
While many of his works are one-of-a-kind sculptures or brooches, others straddle the line between art and wearable design. Necklaces constructed from cascading beaded grapes or pendants resembling crystallized sugar cubes turn the act of wearing into a performance of consumption. The wearer becomes both adorned and metaphorically nourished, echoing rituals of feasting and fashion that have historically been linked. These pieces often reference the vanitas tradition of Dutch still-life painting, where luscious arrangements of food were rendered to evoke both the pleasures of the table and the inevitability of decay. In Poletti’s world, that decay is frozen in glass and crystal, as if time itself has been seduced into stillness.
Though clearly contemporary, Poletti’s beaded gastronomy carries echoes of Baroque and Rococo excess. His compositions often embrace asymmetry, visual drama, and the fantastical. A platter of beaded oysters might appear to spill from a mirrored tray, while candied orange slices seem to defy gravity. There is theatricality in his display, but it is always grounded by the tactile honesty of the materials. Unlike trompe-l’oeil, which seeks to deceive the eye, Poletti’s beadwork revels in its artifice. The beads do not pretend to be anything but beads—they glitter, catch, refract—and in doing so, they elevate the humble act of eating into an ecstatic aesthetic experience.
Stefano Poletti’s beaded gastronomy is ultimately about more than food. It is about hunger—visual, sensory, emotional. It is about our desire to hold onto beauty, to crystallize fleeting pleasures, and to transform everyday indulgence into something lasting. In every cluster of glass grapes or sugar-dusted violet, there is a meditation on the fragility of delight and the power of transformation. Through the alchemy of beadwork, Poletti invites us to taste with our eyes and to savor the art of longing, one luminous morsel at a time.