I work with these materials:
Clay is a natural material, present in the ground.
There are many kinds of clay; they differ for composition and plasticity of the “impasto”. “Montelupo”, a very plastic clay, “Pirofila”, particularly resistant to fire, “Fire-clay”, granulous to the touch and to the sight also after the firing, the coloured clays in which impasto there are oxides (green, black, red,….) and “raku” with an ivory colour after the first firing.
All the sculptures, after drying, are fired in the kiln at a temperature of about 1000°C.
There are the “terra-cotta” works.
Most of my sculptures are glazed with enamels very shines or opaque or, alternatively, with some special mixture enamels that shows spectacular effects.
Often I try new mixture of different enamels or I add oxides (manganese oxide, black, chromo oxide, green, and iron oxide, yellow and red..) to the enamels or I use them alone, in the first firing.
I use also the “lustre”, metallic colour, transparent and iridescent: they need the third firing at a lower temperature.
Sometimes I prefer to finish the terracotta works with wax neutral or a little coloured; I used them alone or combined with pigments.
Other sculptures, after the first firing, are decorated with coloured patina bronze or silver-effect.
I paint some works with acrylics.
When the sculpture is finished, I begin the search for more right basis to emphasize it. First of all, the wood, because it’s a warm material like the clay; then the iron, that well joins the black clay sculptures, the ones decorated with manganese oxide and enamel. The transparent Plexiglas basis turn some works to better account, while lightening the whole perception and drawing people’s attention on the lonely sculpture.
It’s very important collaborate with qualified artisans, working high quality materials with very skilful and creativeness.
The bronze
The bronzes sculptures are made by a trusty foundry man on mine terracotta works.
He uses the ancient technique of the lost wax casting.
The process of lost wax fusion has extremely ancient origins related to the daily life of mankind.
Archaeological findings in Mesopotamia, Greece and Egypt testify to the knowledge of this fascinating technique of working metals, which had already been handed down at that time from father to son, and has remained substantially unaltered through the course of the centuries.
At the end of the process the foundry man chisels and gives a fire-patination to the sculpture “brute de fonderie”.
