Month: March 2017

BottegaNove

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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 to produce decorated mosaic pieces in ceramics and porcelain, following the working process used in artistic ceramics. I grew up amidst ceramics in Nove, where my grandfather established his own artistic manufacture firm in 1964. The activity was then continued by my father and is now carried forward by myself and another associate partner.
Over the years, we have cooperated with important firms in the coating sector, providing specific decorations based on high-end craftsmanship and excellent manual skills. Thanks to this field experience and to Nove’s traditional savoir-faire, I decided to embark on an individual pathway in mosaic production, with an immediately innovative approach, cooperating with people who did not come from the world of production, but were able to work on ideas and creativity in transversal fields, like architect Cristina Celestino.

What kind of products do you create?
We mostly create decorated mosaic pieces for ceramics and porcelain coating. We are also active in the field of artistic ceramics, especially for so-called traditional productions, but we are now working toward achieving unprecedented, research-based results by blending two-dimensional coating production and artistic ceramic production.
We consider ourselves as a “happy island” within the mosaic and tile landscape: we are among the very few who are still carrying forward a tradition of handmade tile production and decoration within the standardised, anonymous scenery of the coating sector.
The Plumage collection typifies the cooperation between our savoir-faire and Cristina Celestino’s creative vision and research. For this project we have produced ad-hoc moulds giving shape to three-dimensional tesserae, with bas-relief veining. The project has been realised both in porcelain (with a 100% Limoges mixture) and in ceramics. Porcelain is paste-dyed, while ceramics tesserae may be either monochromatic (with or without colour-changing lustres) or hand-decorated. Our point of reference rests on birds’ plumage: variety springs both from the plumage colours or from the multifarious combinations we can achieve.
Thus, the strong points of our work are enhanced by this project, allowing us to explore, within one single theme, an endless variety of decorations – even customised ones – and to achieve the most varied results by assembling different kinds of tesserae (as we did in the panels on display in the Fuorisalone). The chromatic and material vibrations from the tesserae turn this versatile, rich project into an actual interior design project.

Ezia Di Labio

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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 a very sensitive person, understood that. For this reason he proposed me to attend a 4-year educational training for violin-makers that would take place in Bologna under his guide: I was starting my career!

Which are the main features of the Bolognese method in the construction of a violin?
In the history of the Bolognese school, several masters have expressed their personality and style, with shapes and models that are absolutely recognizable; the construction process is characterized by using the internal shape, the edges are well rounded, and the threads’ tips have the particular “pungiglione” (sting). The Bolognese paint is recognizable by its red tones.

Hèléne Moreau

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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 that allowed me to experiment the technique of Serti on silk (a colouring technique) both in the realization of theatrical costumes and in set-design.

Why have you chosen Ortigia as main location?
With my partner, who is now my husband, we created a professional training course of fabric decoration where I taught the Serti technique to many women, not only from Palermo. Then I’ve been working for traditional performances, creating costumes for the Curculio di Plauto, and on that occasion I discovered Ortigia, amazing white pearl on a shining sea…such an inspiration for the production of my silk foulards!
In 1992 we moved to Ortigia. At time, nothing was suggesting a touristic development of the area, when I started to work with passion.
Now that Ortigia has become a very popular touristic centre I still work with even more motivation to my artisanal production.

The Horn Museum in Florence

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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 Museum house the works of many other important artists, like Filippo Lippi, Bernardo Daddi, Simone Martini, Pietro Lorenzetti, Dosso Dossi, Antonio Rossellino, Jacopo Sansovino, Agnolo di Polo, Jacopo del Sellaio, Luca Signorelli, Pietro di Giovanni d’Ambrosio, Niccolò di Segna, Piero di Cosimo, Desiderio da Settignano, Bartolomeo Ammannati, Lorenzo di Credi, Carlo Dolci, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Domenico Beccafumi, Giambologna and a precious panel by Masaccio: more than six thousand pieces of art are displayed.
These extraordinary works of painting, sculpture, pottery, goldsmithing, furnishing, plating and weaving have been coexisting with elegance and harmony in the Corsi Palace since the end of the XIX century, in the area of Santa Croce in Florence.