From silicon to mosaics.
From paste to tesseras.
This is how colour is born in the mosaic world where everything is man-made and no piece is alike another one.
This is the strength of craftsmanship. This is what makes our job a form of art.
This is what I was thinking while I was driving to Venice in the early hours of the morning,
to meet my long time supplier Mosaici Donà in Murano, a place where glass making is a real form of art, where colours are created by the cooling process that makes the final product different and unique; a place where enamels, gold, transparent and Filato tesseras are made and cut to size to fit in our needs.
This is what I was discussing with my partner and wife Silvia, while we were driving along the Italian motorways in a warm spring, Italian day, on our way to buy a new supply of Venetian mosaics, the king of the materials we use in our everyday activity at Ferrari&Bacci.
People do not know that Venetian mosaic is bought by the kilo, as you do with the most basic and simple of the food that supports our daily life: as we buy bread…
Like bread, mosaic is made in the silence of the night, where no noise, no phone calls, no people can disturb the magical process that sees silicon becoming mosaics.
Like bread, mosaic is “cooked” in an oven, a special oven, able to support high temperatures, 1400 degrees or more, according to the shade of colours we want to get to, since, as you know, it is the final colour that determines the casting temperature, or the temperature that makes that special colour… see it one way or another…
I was impressed by the simile that occurred to me between bread and mosaic: both the basics, the roots, the fundamental roots, of my everyday life and work and I was happy to go and meet Stefano, a serious, reliable supplier always able to provide me with the best quality and the right colour.
The Donàs have been casting glass for generations and it is always in the complete secrecy of the family that their paste is made, that the magic takes place.
Visitors, clients, are not admitted to this process and we all respect that, since we perfectly know that the unique, added value of this product must be protected, in this jungle of competitors and suppliers.
Time.
This is what makes it real.
It is time that allows the cooling process to take place in the best possible way.
No hurry. No speed. No haste.
Time.
“How long…” may the client ask.
The answer is in the glass, in the texture, in the shade of colour we want to get to.
The rhythm is dictated, as in the past, not by the delivery terms of a contract, or not only, I would say… but by the natural, millennial process that made this magic real and possible.
A process that sees every single afternoon of the week, devoted to the cooling process; a time where no phone calls, no conversation, no dialogue is possible, a time of the day that is the final step of a long, difficult, engaging process.
Stefano is an artist in his field, he knows how to make this happen, how to provide me with the best quality and the perfect shade of colour to make that specific detail or to reproduce that particular hue.
Stefano has knowledge, passion, expertise and his materials are always a guarantee of success.
In his atelier, at his company, there are so many different products to choose and select from, that, during the last 25 years or so of cooperation, we have been able to create a real living library of tesseras, where we physically go to consult, as you would do with a paper book in a real library, to see what colour, what thickness, what size is best for the mosaic we are working on.
We have been working with mutual satisfaction, with Mosaici Donà to get the best formulas, to obtain guaranteed results both for us, the executors, and for the artist, the creator and Mosaici Donà never lets us down on any project.
It is a synergy of quality and mutual intents, that is confirmed every time we work together and I feel that, I know that, every time I walk into his atelier and sees him working at his furnace.
Photocredit @Ferrari&Bacci