There is a certain arrogance in the collaboration between two companies that respect each other enough not to explain themselves. The collaboration that Steinway & Sons and Studio Paelis sealed this spring is of this nature: two disciplines with no apparent connection, two cultures of craftsmanship that, at first glance, seem worlds apart—and yet they share a single common question: how does the material reveal the instrument it supports?
Straw marquetry is not a luxury technique in the contemporary sense of the term. Having emerged in Europe in the early 17th century, it long adorned court furniture and cabinet pieces, just as tortoiseshell or ivory did. What Studio Paelis has been reviving since 2016, from its studio in the heart of Lyon, is something else entirely: a practice once thought to be limited to small formats—panels, boxes, flat surfaces—and which Manon Bouvier-Toth, a Meilleur Ouvrier de France, is methodically pushing to its limits.
Working on a Steinway grand piano is a first for the workshop. The size is no small matter: the Model B measures 211 centimeters, and the Model D, 274. The interior surface of the lid and the music stand present a scope of work unlike anything the studio has typically undertaken. “A piano involves an entirely different scale, different dimensions, and above all, a different physical relationship to the instrument,” says Manon Bouvier-Toth. “Its shape, dimensions, and curves force us to adapt our postures, our movements, and sometimes even our technical approach.”
This adaptation is not metaphorical. Studio Paelis uses only rye straw sourced from a producer in Burgundy. Each strand, in its natural tubular form, is split by hand, then flattened into a smooth, shiny ribbon, before being laid one by one to create direction, rhythm, and pattern. On a Steinway grand piano, this single step—the laying process—takes about a month of work for a single person.
Sidebar — Rye Straw, From Field to Lid
Rye straw comes from a single producer in Burgundy. In its natural form, the strand is hollow and tubular. It is split lengthwise, flattened by hand, and then sorted according to its width and luster. The material cannot be processed mechanically at this stage: every step of preparation is done by hand. Once laid, the straws create a surface with a natural golden sheen whose luminosity varies depending on the angle of the light—a quality that cannot be replicated by lacquer or gilding.
Two designs were developed for this edition. Classic Sunburst arranges the strands in a radiating pattern from a central point, a geometric pattern reminiscent of 17th-century rosettes while remaining true to the studio’s graphic tradition. Concentric Waves arranges the straw in fluid, concentric rings—a visual response to the propagation of sound through the air, which the press release calls “the invisible journey of music.” This isn’t just a press release phrase: it’s a real compositional constraint, as the piano’s curves require the artisan to anticipate the optical distortion of the rings on a non-flat surface.
Each model is available in three colors—Natural, Black, and Blue—shades that have defined Paelis’s color identity from the very beginning. The collection is produced in strictly limited quantities: eighteen instruments per color and per design for Model B, and eight for Model D. It is not the number that defines rarity here, but the unabridged duration of the crafting process.
For Steinway & Sons—a piano manufacturer founded in 1853, where each piano takes about a year to build—the partnership with the Lyon-based workshop represents a continuation rather than a break with tradition. Each instrument in this edition incorporates SPIRIO | r technology, a proprietary system that reproduces the physical movements of the hammers and pedals—not a recording, but the instrument itself playing. The straw-covered surface and the built-in mechanical intelligence are not at odds with one another; they share the same commitment to fidelity: to the note in one case, to the motif in the other.
Perhaps what this collaboration reveals about the state of the decorative arts in 2026 is this: rarity is no longer measured by the exclusivity of the material, but by the time the artisan has chosen to devote to it. A month of repeated gestures on the surface of a black piano—it is this very calculation that gives the rye straw its true value.
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