The Florentine Box
Cofanetti di Fantasia

I have just returned to my studio in Boca Grande from one of my regular visits to Florence, Italy where I spend time with the numerous artisans with whom I work on designs for the various components I incorporate into my Florentine Box projects. This includes time with the Florentine experts in that city’s Renaissance crafts of wood carving, gilding, Florentine marbled / art papers (carta Fiorentina), ceramic tiles, silk and leather production.

Most of the artisans with whom I work come from multi-generational family traditions in
these arts. Their approach and skills derive from hundreds of years of tradition and
experience. As is the case with so many of our world’s longstanding art forms, the shrinking
pool of handcrafting artists has combined with modern technologies to squeezeout individual
craftsmanship and replace it with automated machine production. It is beingable to “tap into”
relationships with those Florentine artists which I treasure.

I thought it might be interesting for me to share some of the aspects of my visits to Florence.

For hundreds of years the studio and laboratorio of Florence’s artigiani have centered
around the Oltrarno district of the city, on the opposite side of the Arno from the Uffizi
and from the Duomo. Whereas elsewhere in the city such artisan laboratorio have been
increasingly pushed out by tourist shops filled with imported items, the Oltrarno district
still is packed with small establishments where work is done “on site” often from a
workbench in the back of the shop.
                        
The Oltrarno district is roughly bounded by the Carraia bridge through the Santa Trinita                      Florence’s Oltrarno District
bridge and up to the Ponte Vecchio. On the river it runs along the Borgo San Frediano as
it turns into the Via Santo Spirito and spreads out toward the Piazza Del Carmine where sits
the Capella Brancacci and its haunting Masaccio frescos.

                                                                                                          

The whole area around Del Carmine and Santo Spirito still resonates with artisanal traditions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                        

It is in this district where many of the finest old studios are located and where I commission much of the Florentine components for my work. Below I can be seen walking the district not just to visit my favored artigiani, but hoping to discover new talent and new techniques. Over the past few years I have increasingly found experimental application of the traditional carta
fiorentina process to both leather and to silk. At some point, these may well be  effective in some of my projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Checking in with my best Florentine paper experts always provides me a wonderful burst of color combinations. I often commission papers to be made with specific color mixes to fit with client specified designs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                          

 

 

 

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

Wood carvers are among the most fascinating of the Florentine art skills to study. The best wood crafters can take an idea I present them and render it into incredible forms. Since I currently incorporate Boca Grande’s ocean shells into my client work, I find it interesting to see some Florentine artists working not only to replicate shells from carved wood, but also to actually work with real shells. I have begun a collection of carved wooden hands and legs similar to those shown in shops below. Perhaps it could be whimsical if I designed a small table using them as legs.