In 2007 Takafumi Mochizuki left the Land of the Rising Sun to move to Florence. After studying furniture restoration for some years he opened his own workshop, becoming the “Zouganista”, from “zougan”, marquetry in Japanese. Because this is his greatest passion: leaving his mark on the wood, creating decorative objects with attractive lines, with curvilinear […]

Just as the Etruscans, of whom Volterra was one of the main city-states, did millennia ago, and just as his father, who opened the workshop in the late 1940s, did, so Spartaco Montagnani in his workshop in the heart of the historic center makes finely crafted cast bronze figurines. Reproductions of Etruscan art, including the […]

The art of glass-making is truly in Cesare Toffolo’s DNA. Born in Murano into a family of master glassmakers, he learned the secrets of glassblowing as a child. At the age of twenty-one, he had his first public exhibition at Venice’s  Palazzo Cà Vendramin Calergi and, for several decades now, he has been considered to […]

Paoletti Instruments was established in 2010, but its creations have become a favorite with internationally-renowned musicians in a very short time. The first was Maurizio Solieri, Vasco Rossi’s guitarist, but many are the stars who now play Fabrizio Paoletti’s personalized guitars and basses, including Bruce Springsteen and Keith Richards. From the selection of woods to […]

From the age of sixteen, Valentino Ricci has trained and gone on to work in tailoring. After working as a lawyer, in 2002 he decided to devote himself to the thing that has always been his true passion. This is how the Sciamat brand was born. Garments that stand out at first glance from cut […]

Patrizia Brancaleone, glassmaker since 1986, is a woman with a brilliant talent, extraordinary dexterity and and an unquenchable curiosity. In her world light is the most extraordinary emotional element, created through the use of colour, intensity and inconsistency. Glass fusing (a technique imported from the United States), pâte de verre, mosaico, grisaille: she uses many […]

Saskia Wittmer learned the craft of making bespoke shoes in Germany from the best master shoemaker. After some years travelling around Europe as an apprentice in the best artisan workshops, she arrived in Florence to work with Stefano Bemer, another prestigious name in bespoke shoemaking. Saskia has had her own workshop for fifteen years, where […]

In the Antica Casteldurante, Gilberto Galavotti and Giuliano Smacchia, two ceramic artists specialized in traditional 16th century maijolica, work side by side, combining their experience and expertise to create works that have a personal touch. Together, they look for the right shapes, the ancient decorations and glazes. They have a very extensive production which includes […]

Statues of all sizes, nativity scenes from 11 to 160 cm: at the Casa d’Arte professor Lando Landi has been a supplier for the best religious shops in Italy and in the world and the religious institutions for more than 80 years. The smallest statues are made of solid resin, the others of fibre glass […]

For nearly a century, here, in this historic workshop of Bologna, visitors have watched the magic of iron being worked into different shapes. Today it is Pierluigi, the founder’s grandson, who devotes himself to the creation of precious decorative objects in both classic and modern styles, in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, all […]