Itinerari di Wellmade: Il cotto di Impruneta, segreti del mestiere custoditi in fornace

Inspired by their mother's artistic flair, in 1997 Giuseppe and Antonio Bevilacqua founded a ceramic workshop in a small Sicilian town in the province of Caltanissetta, where they create the typical products of Caltagirone and Santo Stefano di Camastra ceramics - such as Moorish heads, pinecones, and tables - in a more contemporary style, while still using traditional ...

Rita Turri, Master of Arts and Crafts 2024 in wood marquetry, inherited from her father Carlo, founder of the Tarsie Turri workshop in Anagni (in the province of Frosinone), the technique and sensitivity to find the harmony in which a few dozen or a thousand pieces, patiently composed in a refined geometric and chromatic balance, can coexist. Let's start with the inlay ...

Immerse yourself in an unexpected experience: a true paradise for children, who can go to this place, especially around Christmas time, to give their dolls and toys a new life, enhancing what they already have. How did the idea of the Ospedale delle Bambole come about and what is the history of this atelier-museum? The sign ‘Ospedale delle Bambole’ was put up ...

Simone Cenedese inherited his glasswork workshop from his father Giovanni, who founded it in the 1970s in Murano. The company immediately become a renowned excellence in the field of glassworking. Simone, thanks to his talent and inventiveness, and his spirit of innovation, has also made the furnace an international point of reference for many designers who wish to ...

Attombri is a craft workshop in Venice, where glass, combined with other materials such as copper and silver, becomes costume jewellery and furnishing items. Since the late 1980s, brothers Stefano and Daniele Attombri have been interpreting the history, techniques and potential of this material in a contemporary way, creating accessories and elements that combine ...

Atelier Martina Vidal has been carrying on the Burano lace tradition for four generations now. Founded as a small family-run workshop from an idea of Martina Vidal, the brand now makes luxury lace for the home and person, and has a sumptuous showroom on the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon. The collections are the result of passion, experience and creativity, and ...

Fratelli Ruffatti is a craft company of pipe organ builders and restorers. The workshop was established in Padua in 1940, and in a short time, thanks to the skill of their founders and the beauty and quality of their musical instruments, they obtained important commissions not only in Italy, but all over the world: from Europe to Asia, from Africa to the United States. ...

Pusterlamarmi is a craft company in Como, a true excellence in stone working and marble processing in particular, a material with which they produce refined furnishing accessories. It was founded in 1977, and it is now run by the second generation, Lorenzo and Angela Pusterla, who respectively take care of the production and the management of the family business. Since ...

Enza Fasano's workshop is the true spearhead of Grottaglie ceramic art. The master in fact grew up among terracottas, and having practiced this art all her life has allowed her to develop a refined and recognizable taste. Today, in her historic atelier, she creates artefacts inspired by local tradition, but also reinvented with originality and enriched by shapes and ...

Friul Mosaic is a family-run craft company of artistic mosaics, founded by William Bertoia in 1987. The atelier draws on an important tradition, with an eye towards contemporary design: starting from the concept, for which innovative motifs and original compositions are sought, each mosaic is made by hand, tile after tile, respecting the traditional techniques. Wall ...

PictaLab is an interior decoration workshop created in Milan over fifteen years. It was founded in 2007 by Orsola Clerici, in collaboration with Chiara Troglio. In this elegant atelier, hand-painted wallpaper and wall decorations are created, with many different techniques: from fresco to trompe l'oeil, from coating to lacquering. Here, skilled craftspeople masterfully ...

Diego Poloniato is a master ceramicist who grew up in Nove, a small town renowned for the ceramic tradition. He specializes in the creation of the typical Venetian "cuchi" and "arcicuchi", whistling terracotta sculptures of different sizes, with varied and curious shapes; but he also creates home ornaments and clay sculptures, mastering various modeling and coloring ...

The atelier Ornella Bijoux was founded in Milan in 1944 by Piera Barni. A historic business with an incredible story, bridged into present days thanks to the talent and determination of Simona Scala, the third generation at the helm of the business. They create jewels with a vintage flavor, ofetn inspired by Art Nouveau, but also with a more contemporary taste, made up ...

Laura Inghirami, journalist and advisor specialized in the jewelry sector, and Founder of “Donna Jewel”, interviewed, for the Cologni Foundation, the Master artisans who have been acknowledged in 2022 as “MAM – Master of Arts and Crafts”, in the category: Jewelry - Silversmithing - Goldsmithing. Vincenzo Aucella, Marketing Manager and Master artisan of ...

Laura Inghirami, journalist and advisor specialized in the jewelry sector, and Founder of “Donna Jewel”, interviewed, for the Cologni Foundation, the Master artisans who have been awarded as “MAM – Master of Arts and Crafts”, in the category: Jewelry - Silversmithing – Goldsmithing. “The “fiaccherai” - says Master Paolo Pagliai - were the old-time ...

Davide Furno is a true master of wax. He was the first in Italy to give new life and dignity to wax modeling, thus recovering an ancient and completely forgotten technique: this is a discipline that, with the help of waxes, natural resins, plasters and powders, gives life to flowers and fruit, that can be combined into extraordinary compositions. With this process, and ...

The history of “Ceramiche San Giorgio” started with the dream of a boy, Giovanni Poggi, who wanted to be a ceramicist and to open an important workshop. He decided to do it in his hometown, Albisola, a Ligurian city with a long artisanal tradition: the San Giorgio factory opened its doors in 1958, thanks to the partnership between master artisan Poggi and his two ...

Saverio Pastor is one of the last "remèr" (oar maker) masters in Venice: an ancient trade, which was born in Venice many centuries ago, when mobility around the lagoon was entirely by rowing. This noble craft is nowadays in danger of disappearing, because there are few craftspeople who are able to carry on this important know-how, and even fewer young talents who have ...

Anita Cerrato is a ceramic restorer with a great passion for the Japanese culture and aesthetics. She specializes in Kintsugi, a ceramic repair technique that does not hide the fractures of the object, but enhances them by embellishing them: an imperfect beauty capable of restoring life and meaning to any object. In her atelier in Milan, she creates objects and ...

The history of the Barbini family goes along with the tradition of Venetian mirrors, which dates back to the 16th century. The brothers Giovanni and Vincenzo Barbini, with the support of their children, still nowadays personally carry out all the stages of processing using the traditional techniques of the craft. In 2018 they received the accolade MAM - Master of Arts ...

Sandro Barbera & Sons is the winner of the Artigiano del cuore contest, for the section entitled Vestirsi e Ornarsi (Chothing and Ornaments). We have met Sandro's son, Andrea, who is now continuing the family business with his brother Stefano: a sound, cutting-edge company, resting on a great family tradition. Everybody in Biella knows and loves their shoes, which ...

Fabrizio Travisanutto is the winner of the Artigiano del Cuore (Artisan of the Heart) contest for the Arredare e Decorare (Furnishing and Decorating) section. A Master Mosaic artist since 2003, he is now running his father's business as well as creating wonderful artworks for prestigious customers worldwide. Congratulations on your winning! How did you experience the ...

My parents would have preferred me to become an architect. But ever since I was a child, I have always enjoyed making big drawings and playing with puppets and costumes. So becoming a set designer came almost naturally. My career at La Scala began after a short experience as assistant costumier for the show Barbablù at the Piccolo Teatro of Milan. I was in my third year ...

As far back as 1750, the name Buccellati referred to a goldsmith’s shop just a stone’s throw away from the Duomo. Today, the elegant boutique in Via Montenapoleone, opened in 1919 by Mario Buccellati and now run by his son Gianmaria and grandson Andrea, represents the continuity of an ancient art that masterfully combines traditional tools and techniques and modern ...

At the junction of two of Milan’s main fashion thoroughfares lies a well-concealed yet thriving business. Even those who think they know every corner of the city might be forced to think again. Far from indiscreet eyes, it shines with a light of its own. It creates culture. It boasts a tradition dating back over a century and gives the gift of pleasure. Its DNA is ...

While exploring Italy’s artistic crafts, over the years, I have taken part in a variety of research and design projects that were aimed also at stimulating these manifold regional realities. This has given me the opportunity to observe the significant differences in culture, production and business structures that characterise a sector that was once ignored and scorned, ...

While his brother Agostino was engaged in a learned dissertation on Laocoön and the awe-inspiring virtues of the ancient arts, Annibale Carracci set about drawing the famous group of sculptures on a wall. When asked why, he replied: “We depictors must speak with our hands.” This anecdote is well-known and particularly relevant, today. It allows us to reason on the ...

We have invited Aurelio Mutinelli, Selleria Pariani’s President, to tell us about his own and his company’s story, a long-standing Milanese firm, which created the first modern saddle worldwide. When did the story of Selleria Pariani begin?In the early 20th century, Adolfo Pariani was the owner of a shop in Milan, a few steps from the Duomo, specialising in English ...

Florence, the city of art and know-how. Florence, the city of perfume. A longstanding tradition that started in the Renaissance and is perpetuated today by the city’s time-honoured perfume houses and award-winning noses, creating innovative products that are appreciated all over the world.The city’s dedication to artistic perfumery has brought about the establishment ...

With special thanks to Sicilian cassata. This famous and delicious dessert, typical of the island, played an important role in the survival of the Amatruda paper mill. In the first half of the 20th century, when systematic industrialisation and the development of more modern commercial arteries were heavily penalising the increasingly isolated Amalfi, Ferdinando Amatruda ...

Tarshito’s artistic journey represents the link between the cultures of art and craftsmanship of the Western and Eastern hemispheres. His designs are full of mystical and spiritual references, and find their most intense portrayal and formalisation in India’s artisan culture.Your coherence and your love of Mediterranean materials and culture are well known; as a ...

Theodor Adorno once wrote that “freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices”. It is an approach that clearly reflects our current situation; instead of looking for a fertile combination of complementary principles, we often end up working in one direction only. Yet in so doing, we frustrate the blossoming of riches that ...

Michelangelo used to say that whoever had the skill to draw held a great treasure. One needs only to look up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to fully appreciate the extent of this seemingly elemental statement, even though the skill of the legendary Italian artist went well beyond drawing: he painted, sculpted, designed buildings, composed poetry and even engineered ...

BottegaNove creates decorated mosaic pieces both in ceramics and porcelain.We have met Christian Pegoraro, a third-generation master ceramist, who has been able to re-interpret the ancient tradition of ceramics processing through innovative thinking.What is the story of BottegaNove? How did you start your activity?BottegaNove was created at the end of 2013, with the aim ...

What is your story? And how did you started your activity? After graduating at the Artistic High School in Pescara, I moved to Bologna where I started studying violin. The violin-maker Master Otello Bignami used to take care of my instrument and I used to spend more time in his laboratory than practicing: his work really inspired me more than other disciplines and he, as ...

Which is your history? In 1986 I moved to Palermo, joining a group of friends who were musicians, craftsmen and artists. At time, I was coming from working experiences in the social sector in France and with that know-how I started a new life in Palermo, where I got deeply in contact with the world of the theatre and of the stage. That was a really important opportunity ...

Herbert Percy Horne was an architect, scholar and art collector from London. When he founded the Horne Museum, his purpose was to make a prestigious exhibition site for his collections out of his residence, but also a vibrant cultural place to learn from history and art.Besides the painting "Santo Stefano" by Giotto, standing out for its importance, the rooms of the ...

110 young talents selected to take part in the programme “A School, a Job. Training to Excellence”, in which Italy’s top masters craftsmen pass on their trade secrets to the artisans of the future, have been celebrated with a special event in Milan. If you could choose your mentor, someone who has mastered the craft and moulded with passion and dedication the ...

The beautiful tradition of mosaic works fashioned in semiprecious stones that originated in the Italian Renaissance is still carried on today in the heart of Florence by the Scarpelli family: in the workshop Le Pietre nell’Arte, this art finds a natural continuation under the banner of absolute and acknowledged excellence. This particular mosaic technique, with which ...

What links Art and Artisanship? This is an old and complex question: a diatribe that belongs to the modern era, and which conceptual art seems to have intensified since the 1960s. However, conceptual art could not exist without the support of skilled artisans and, in a way, the very methods involved in conceptual art strengthen its relationship with craftsmanship. The ...

The atelier of Gianluca Pacchioni, master in the art of forging metals and recently nominated among the 75 MAM-Maestro d’Arte e Mestiere, that encompass some of the most talented artisans in Italy, is in Milan: in particular, it is located in a building from the Thirties which used to be an eye-drops factory. Which is your history?After a degree at the Bocconi ...

We have interviewed G. Inglese, a famous shirt maker, greatly appreciated for his care and passion for realising bespoke tailored clothing.What is your story? How did you start your activity?Our activity started in 1955, in Ginosa, "the land of Gravine", a few kilometres from Matera¸ with an atelier founded by my father with his brothers and my grandmother, a shirt ...

The finest Italian craftsmanship, with the exceptional manual skills of the different territories, has for the first time been represented in a new project promoted by the Gruppo Editoriale publishing house, in association with Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d'Arte and Osservatorio dei Mestieri d'Arte of Florence: Italia su misura.This ambitious, innovative program gives ...

“As far as I can recollect, I have always had a fan…” says the 30 year old Parisian, Raphaëlle de Panafieu: when she was a child, her father always brought fans back from his frequent travels to Asia for her and both her sisters. One day she wanted to buy a fan with her own money, but she didn’t like the Asian and the Spanish ones sold on the seafront. They ...

In Japan, tradition is as important as progress: one cannot exist without the other. Japan was the first country in the world to build an entire railway network dedicated to the Shinkansen, the famous “bullet trains” that whizz incessantly between bustling futuristic cities. In these cities, hundreds of department stores still dedicate entire floors to kimonos and ...

According to the Chinese, Kao-ling and pai-tun-tzu represent the “backbone” and the “meat” of porcelain. Today, they are commonly known as kaolin and feldspar. Combined with quartz, they form the alchemical compound, which is at the origin of the purity and hardness of the so-called “white gold” developed during the T’ang dynasty (618-907).  After many ...

Lorenzo Borghi’s story started in 1952, at the age of twelve, when he started working at Lionello Passerini’s millinery shop. When Passerini died, Borghi took over and moved the business to Via dei Piatti in the heart of Milan. There, he has been dedicating himself for over fifty years to the fine art of traditional hat-making. During his career, he has collaborated ...

When did you decide that your future would be in woodworking?My passion for wood grew in a craftsman’s workshop where I used to spend a lot of time during my university years. My passion for design flourished at the Polytechnic University of Milan, also thanks to Beppe Finessi, an extraordinary professor who influenced my choices and marked my future.I developed the ...

It is not easy to keep up with Sam Baron. He works in Italy, France and Portugal and is always on the move between Europe and the rest of the world, where he stages his exhibitions and takes part in all the most important design events. The 37-year-old French designer is well known in the design world because he places himself halfway between factory and workshop. So much ...

Fabscarte, established from Emilio Brazzolotto's twenty-year long experience, is specialised in the production of handmade and painted wallpapers. We have visited their wonderful Milanese atelier.Does this profession require specific training?An education in arts and crafts is essential, but what is even more important is to work with a master specialised in interior ...

Talent is both the measure of the weight that, on a balance, makes one pan heavier than the other, and the metaphor of anything (money, especially) endorsing the supremacy of one side over the other. A unit of measure that becomes a value in itself, when one seeks evaluation standards that are not just numerical. Talent and value have thus migrated from the solid units of ...

The business area of craftsmanshift does not have the same meaning as it did some decades ago, even from a semantic point of view. In France, the definition of “métier d’art” was correctly chosen to substitute “artisanat”. In the past, handicraft was a concept associated to  the production process of consumption goods by the artisan regardless of the ...

The global luxury industry is dominated by European brands and this configuration is likely to continue in the medium term. Despite much talk, very few luxury brands have emerged from fast-growing markets such as China or even more mature markets such as North America. Europe remains the commercial and spiritual heartland for luxury. This is remarkable, given how most of ...