Coltelli Artigianali Manca, in Pattada, is the place where owner Massimo Manca handcrafts sa rezolsa, the traditional Sardinian switchblade knife, which finds one of its main production centres in the small town in the province of Sassari.
Known throughout the world for their excellence – so much so that they are also called pattadesi – the knives from this territory have achieved such fame among enthusiasts that Massimo, by now a recognised master, has been able to collaborate with important brands – such as Ferrari and Ducati – for the creation of special sets, as well as entering with his creations into some of the most prestigious international private collections.
The production of the knives is strictly manual and requires the mastery of various traditional techniques: from the forging of the razor-sharp metal blades to the carving of the finest woods or materials such as ox horn, mutton and mouflon. Massimo carries out all these processes in his atelier in Pattada, combining tradition, passion and a meticulous search for perfection.
Materiale: metalli
Eleonora Ghilardi
Eleonora Ghilardi is a sculptor, ceramist, goldsmith and designer, creating sculptures, home furnishing and contemporary bijoux.
Her creativity finds its fullest expression in porcelain modelling, masterly died and moulded by the artist into fine plastic forms. Her new collections “Secret Gardens” and “Forest” combine an unusual element, lichen, with pure-white porcelain. Once the lichen is lodged inside the bijoux, it creates an aesthetic effect inducing the wearer to take care of it and display it as a small piece of home décor.
Her collections are currently made in brass and silver, using the ancient technique of lost wax casting, and “Sparkling” is the new series dedicated to the world of wine.
Ghilardi’s works have been granted significant awards and credits in a number of competitions, such us the Internationl Ceramics Competition’s First Prize (Lodi, 2009), and they have been selected for several exhibitions, including “Gioielli alla moda” (Milan’s Palazzo Reale, 2016).
Arte & Mestieri
Arte & Mestieri is an upholstery workshop with over 20 years of experience, specialising in the preservation and restoration of wooden furniture with precious padding.
They offer treatments with high-quality materials and techniques, fitting the style and age of the products, with a view to reclaiming and enhancing their value, as well as ensuring resistance and durability. Also, Arte & Mestieri offer bespoke redesign of padding elements, performs gilding and mothproofing treatments, create and install fabric-taut wall upholstery.
The firm’s catalogue includes headboards, curtains, table covers, bedspreads, cushions, sofas, armchairs and foot-stools also with removable covers, while a sample collection of high-end fabrics and hides produced by outstanding Italian and European firms is available in the Arte & Mestieri showroom.
Alice Corbetta
Alice Corbetta was born in Milan, where she graduated in painting at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera.
She started her career drawing collections of fabrics and contemporary rugs for companies and firms near Como. Later on, she specialised in furniture and design products, working with several architectural firms. In 2007, she settled in Tuscany, where she took up contemporary home decoration, creating textures and surfaces in cement and resin.
Each household furnishing is interpreted as a narrative platform, where intellectual references from literary works and historical artistic currents like the International Style, the Bauhaus and Visual Poetry are made to converge.
In her works Alice employs a particular tailoring technique, creating relief surfaces woven in a contemporary matter.
Her coverings show her unique and characteristic sign: it is possible to detect the development of her research and her artistic sensitivity.
Annamode Costumes
Annamode Costumes is a studio where costumes for cinema and theatre are crafted. The place showcases perfectly the complex relationship between fashion and costume design. Around the mid-1900s, the Allegri sisters, Anna and Teresa, opened the atelier and won over Roman ladies and Italian costume designers thanks to their sartorial creations. These creations were the result of a project carried forward with passion and careful dexterity. The Allegri sisters’ costumes became famous in the worlds of fashion design, show-business, motion picture, and theatre: they have always been acknowledged for being ahead of time and fashion trends.
They contributed to the success of many Hollywood films, and were worn and loved by some of the best and most beautiful actresses in the world, such as Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Maria Grazia Cucinotta and Scarlett Johansson.
Antonino Sciortino
Antonio Sciortino’s workshop is located in a formerly industrial area’s courtyard in Milan. This eclectic artist-craftsman has reinterpreted the ancient art of ironwork in an unprecedented manner.
Born in Bagheria, in Sicily, he started learning the ironmonger’s craft at the age of eight in his brother’s workshop. However, it was only at the age of forty that he established his workshop in Milan, after a career as a professional dancer. Stemming from unusual creative combinations, his works rely on “filo cotto”, a rather malleable kind of iron. The other particularity of “filo cotto” is that it can take on a plastic or wooden appearance, and allows for the creation of fluid and dynamic lines evoking “dancing shadows”.
Antonio’s works are flexible and versatile: they have multiple functions and can be arranged in different ways. They are realised on the spot and reworked until they meet his creative imagination. He defines them as “minimal Baroque”, which is a contradiction that is only apparent since, as he says, “if you know the rule you can make exceptions”.
Sciortino also creates furnishing elements or design objects under specific commissions or in order to please guests who fall in love with what they see in his studio and want to buy it for their homes.
La Fucina di Efesto
La Fucina di Efesto was created in 1997 in the Bovisa district, the lively university centre of Milan’s Politecnico. The district is located within the ancient walls of a barn that had belonged to the Benedictine Order, dating back to 1624.
Today, this place is a crossroads of traditions, innovative techniques and creativity. There, designing and realising new works unfold in a well-organised space, and all tools recall a nearly forgotten savoir-faire.
Inside La Fucina di Efesto, metal sculpture qualifies as a research activity. This is due to the fact that sculpture endows matter and its transformation principles with a visible and tangible form. The sculpting process applied to metal, especially iron, explores uncharted pathways toward a technical and creative research.
Their enthusiasm for studying matter, as well as their strong wish to apply it to sculpture and design lead Alessandro Rametta, Nicolò Mulazzani and Andrea Capriotti to explore a wide variety of experimental pathways.
Ambrogio Carati
Ambrogio Carati’s workshop has been manufacturing brass and bronze complements for furniture for four generations. The atelier, founded by Ambrogio’s grandfather Enrico in 1894, is now run by Ambrogio and his two sons, Ernesto and Francesco. The staple activities in this family-run activity are carried out with both passion and professionalism. They include polishing, gilding, chromium plating, as well as restoration and realization of custom-made items.
Photo credit: Dario Garofalo
E. Rancati
Founded in Milan in 1864, E. Rancati is one of the longest-standing and most authoritative companies in the field of prop making for cinema, theatre, and television. For over a century and a half, directors, set designers, and costume designers from around the world have relied on its workshops for the creation, rental, and adaptation of objects intended for the stage: weapons and armor, furniture, decorative elements, jewelry, and costume accessories capable of accurately recreating multiple historical periods, from the origins of humankind to the present day.
The company’s origins date back to the Milanese theatrical prop workshop of Pietro Zaffaroni and Giulia Sormani, suppliers, among others, to Teatro alla Scala. In 1864, following her husband’s death, Giulia inherited the business and, after marrying the sculptor Edoardo Rancati -professor at the Accademia di Brera- founded E. Rancati & C., involving also her brothers Angelo and Giuseppe Sormani. From the outset, the workshop combined artistic knowledge and technical expertise, laying the foundations for a tradition that would span four generations of the family.
In 1875, Angelo Sormani opened a branch in Rome, expanding the company’s reach, which in 1892 received a significant award at the Chicago World’s Fair. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Romolo Sormani collaborated with leading figures of culture and performing arts -including Puccini, Mascagni, Toscanini, Savinio, De Chirico, and Prampolini- further consolidating Rancati’s role within the European theatrical scene.
From the 1930s onwards, the business gradually expanded into cinema, initiating collaborations with major international productions. In the company’s workshops, now led by Cristina and Romolo, skilled artisans transform metal, wood, leather, and innovative materials such as resins and polyurethanes into strikingly realistic stage objects.
From masterpieces of Italian cinema such as Rome, Open City and La Dolce Vita to international productions like Ben-Hur, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones, E. Rancati’s work continues to shape, with artisanal ingenuity and historical precision, an extraordinary “dream factory.”