Today, being a craftsman means knowing how to draw on various resources. It’s necessary to have a lot of skills and knowledge regarding both the processing techniques and the tools used in the workshop, many of them obviously faithful to the past traditions. Dexterity is always the starting point to create a unique piece. In the …
When I went to school I’d never bet that one day I would find myself protagonist in my father’s workshop. If I must be sincere, I didn’t even think about it. All roads led me to university, law, literature or any other faculty it was. It was not even imaginable that a young guy wished …
We are in the center of Florence, in Borgo Santi Apostoli in the heart of the city, a few steps away from Ponte Vecchi and from the Uffizi galleries, and he is Tommaso Pestelli goldsmith. During the Renaissance the link between figurative arts and goldsmiths was very strong and many painters and sculptors of …
We are on the hills just outside Florence in a place that encompasses a love of tradition, fine manufacturing, high education, a center for research, restoration and culture. The co-protagonists of this adventure are the manual Jacquard looms of the late 19th century; the loom setters with their attention and skill; the weavers with their …
Every time I visit the workshop of a Master Craftsman, in addition to admiring their creations, I ask to see their sketches or drafts. I love discovering their creative process and how from an idea the Master arrives at the final work. In addition to being superlative makers, they are great drawers first and foremost. …
His creative story begins with an experience of deafness. At the age of 18 years after an accident and ‘was completely deaf for 3 months without being able to hear anything. From that experience was born the Creative Feeling, an expressive drive, creative power that will affect him throughout his life. Such a deep and …
I’m about to meet Vanessa Cavallaro who inherited this precious art from her father and became Master.
Have you ever entered an Italian historical Bottega? They are enchanted places where it seems to go back in time, where everything speaks of tradition and culture. To be referred to as “historical exercise” one must have exercised the activity in the same economic sector for at least 50 years, without interruption. Many of the …
Thanks to 8 women, a profession that has deep feminine roots becomes “The Art of Glass Pearls” an intangible UNESCO ICH heritage. We are in Veneto, especially in the popular Castello-Venice district, and already between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women strung pearls, in the impirar dialect, near their homes. The impiraresse usually gathered in …
The Impiraresse: passion, tenacity, perseverance Read More »
When we talk about “digital craftsmanship” what do we mean? For some, the technology applied to crafts is still to be considered “Craftsmanship”, it is not my point of view, but we will talk about this maybe at another time. Adrian Cheng, founder of K11 and the undisputed point of reference on new distribution …
