Gallé became interested in wood in 1885, when he was looking for exotic woods to make sculpted bases for his vases. He was intrigued by the extraordinary variety of colors and reflective qualities of the woods being imported into Europe from colonies around the world. Within a year, he had created his own furniture workshop, employing experienced carpenters, sculptors, varnishers and experts in marquetry, as well as craftsmen in bronze and iron to make the knobs, locks, and other hardware. He was aided in design by experienced collaborators such as Victor Prouvé. Unlike some designers of the Arts and Crafts movement, he was willing to use machine tools to speed up the manufacture, if it did not diminish the quality of the final product. He began to experiment, sculpting the locks, using patinas of bronze and heating the locks to get exactly the color he wanted. He created a collection of six hundred different varieties of wood. so he could create marquetry in exactly the color and shade, and nuances of the grain he wanted. By 1889 he was able to mount a very successful display of his furniture at the Paris Universal Exposition.