Story#9 - Ilaria
Ilaria, Porcia (PN), Italy
Ilaria is an artisan, a mosaicist, and I met her in her small laboratory, two steps from the apartment she shared with his husband.
In her laboratory
Although when you think at mosaic in Italy you immediately imagine Ravenna, Vasto, Pompei, the small province in the North-East of Italy where I come is renowned for preparing masters of the art of mosaic.
Her journey
"I study graphic design, but I was scared to imagine my life in front of a laptop all time.”
"I have worked few years for one of the few large laboratories in the region and then decided to open my own business".
A unique art
"Mosaic is a niche market: realising a final piece can be very expensive, takes a lot of time, and many people don't understand its process."
Still now, many requests come from the US or from abroad. At the same time, in Italy projects, mainly rely on the religious ecosystem: churches, cathedrals, old abbeys, sometimes museums. But often, this happens only if the work is sponsored.
"COVID didn't help, as I had no opportunities to promote my work, seek connections, forge collaborations. The market of mosaic went basically on hold."
"I missed working on mosaic so much! But I took the challenge and set up my own company to continue doing what I like the most. And I want to do it here".
Finalising a mosaic project is a complex assessment: you need to size the dimensions from a plan, get a sense of the materials necessary, decide on the colours, tonalities, quantities. A mosaicist usually works on drawing prepared by others. The artist works in sections, as the main project is divided into drawing parts assembled when placing the final craft.
Most of the work is done in the laboratory by a team of artists who work together. Once the whole project is completed, it is transported on-site for placing.
"The work in the lab is a real team exercise because the final work needs to be consistent and harmonic".
Very few women can also do the placing part of the project on-site, as it is very physical demanding: the use of cement, the tools, the scaffolds, the position requested to place the layer of mosaic make it very hard for a woman.
Ilaria showed me the "how to do": how to handle the 750gr hammer ("Although at school they teach us to use a 1 kg hammer), the integration with the wood strain, the chock, the little roll with a diamond spike to incise the layer of glass (the "pizza").
Simple tools for repetitive, but never equal, gestures.With natural precision and timing, Ilaria broke small pieces of glass. It is the first part of any project, intense and prudent.
She also explained advanced techniques, such as the one used by Giandomenica Facchina, a French mosaicist (but of Italian origin), who decorated most of the Opera Garnier in Paris. He invented his unique 'reverse technique', to reduce time and effort for large dimension mosaics.
I was impressed by the importance of details.
Finding and placing a coloured little piece of glass of a specific colour is not that easy. Intensity, tonalities, complementarity are criterias that a mosaicist needs to consider.
"When to look a mosaic is not from close. Colours observed from a certain distance need to be calibrated, the same way photographers do with their monitor if they want to print their imagines with fidelity".
I enjoyed talking with Ilaria: she took me into the beautiful world of mosaic and helped me to understand the dedication an artist need to put in crafting a unique piece of art. You can breathe her passion and her motivation for this art.
"Life asked me to stay here. Here, around me, is where I want to produce my crafts."
I admire those who believe in their dreams. I wrote it also for other stories. Some people, particularly young people, invest in their future and build it little by little, piece by piece, like in a mosaic.
Good luck, Ilaria!
STORIES of HOPE. Simple stories of ordinary people that carry a message of hope, a fragment of future. I have been meeting incredible people, that transmit energy, passion, engagement. I talk to them and try to find their message of hope.
