ABOUT
I was born and grew up in Italy. After graduating in Languages and Literature I moved to Edinburgh to teach Italian. Following a career in corporate communication, I decided to pursue my passion and completed an MFA in Jewellery at Edinburgh College of Art in June 2012.
I established my first workshop in the Lake District in 2012 and in 2016 I moved back to Edinburgh where my studio is currently based.
INSPIRED BY THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
In 2011 I was awarded a bursary that enabled me to study jewellery in Seoul for four months. My present work is influenced by the Korean urban landscape and explores the contrast between modern buildings and ancient temples and palaces of South Korea.
Inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, my work is a reflection on the urban environment, its geometries and unique stories.
I approach the creation of my jewellery in the same way I would compose a story and, like Marco Polo of Invisible Cities, I borrow elements from the city’s landscape to visually describe it and subtly suggest it to the viewer.
Like those buildings, my pieces show the vulnerability of materials when exposed to time and elements; the layers and colours that slowly transform with the passing of years. Simple in form, but rich in stories and complexities.
DESIGNING AND MAKING BY HAND
While searching for a personal way to elaborate my vision of the urban landscape, I develop forms that are based on subjective observation, but invite the viewer to make new personal associations.
I mainly work with wood, which I combine with precious metals and sometimes stones. My pieces are sculptural, bold and tactile; they are usually large in scale, but light to wear. Although they are based on preparatory sketches, my way of working with materials is largely intuitive and instinctive. I don’t tend to constrain myself to the initial drawings, but I allow incidents to be part of my creative process and this often produces unintentional and more interesting results. This way of working often sparks ideas for new pieces or brings me to unexpected turns and if I am not happy with the final outcome, I start the whole process again.
