The Artisans

The brainchild of Sergio Sassolini, Omnibus Design is a well-established, Florentine furniture company founded after years spent working with and learning secrets from his carpenter father. Specialized in furniture emphasizing and celebrating the natural beauty of wood, over the years the company has chosen to collaborate with influential designers and architects to provide clients with singular custom-made products. Experimentation with new materials paired with excellent craftsmanship nourishes the brand and its creative vision.

Originally from Rome and subsequently relocating to Bolzano, Andrea De Chirico is a young designer who boasts a curriculum rich in studies and experiences throughout Europe. His projects are born from a desire to combine tradition and modernity: everyday objects are manufactured and transformed to become something completely new, to be used in a variety of contexts. His work has been exhibited at, among others, the London Design Museum, the Triennale Design Museum and the Z33 House for Contemporary Art.

Pietro Arnoldi is a versatile artist whose craft extends from painting and sculpture to scenography and design. Born in Taleggio in 1955, he attended Brera Academy and moved to Milan to nurture his sculptural talents. Arnoldi uses different materials to create works of art and home decor accessories, wood being his deepest inspiration. His wooden sculptures are a unique combination of art and design, meticulously fashioned using reclaimed ancient wood. His pieces are on display in the Lignorama Museum in Riedau, Austria as well as private and public collections worldwide.

Tabula Woods is a brand created by Co.in.ra., a four-generation family company and leader in rare wood essences based in Udine, Italy. Far from modern industrial systems, Tabula’s aesthetic identifies beauty in asymmetry, natural cycles, and the respect for the land in all its biodiversity and abundance. Nature itself determines sizes and shapes of Tabula’s singular tables, showcasing Co.in.ra.’s vast selection of centuries-old, rare woodsfrom Europe to North America, whose signs of aging, external agents and imperfections, are enhanced as signs of beauty.

Antonino Ferrantelli founded Falegnameria d’Arte Ferrantelli in 1930 in Alcamo, Sicily. Now in its third generation, Antonino’s grandson Riccardo has continued the artistic woodworking family tradition and established Trame Siciliane together with Sicilian designer Gabriele D'Angelo. Crafted by combining masterful skills and innovative techniques, these modern artistic furniture pieces, and home décor accessories are inspired by the Sicilian tradition and the culture of art and beauty that belongs to the Ferrantelli family.

In 1949, in the heart of Florence, Agresti’s artisans began creating unique handcrafted strongboxes, sophisticated cabinets, and other fine wooden furniture. Today, with the pillars of safety, elegance, and refinement in mind, designers and artisans are committed to preserving Florentine craftsmanship tradition in a modern manufacturing facility outside the city’s medieval walls. The various stages of creation and production are all performed within Agresti’s company and combine precious woods and metals in exclusive, luxurious designs.

For over fifty years, founder Carlo Turri and his daughter Rita have been making exquisite picture frames, panels, wood paneling, and inlaid furnishing objects of timeless elegance using natural wood. Based in Anagni, Tarsie Turri combines contemporary craftwork trends and Renaissance aesthetics using manual processing based on 15th-century Italian crafting techniques. The latest projects include collaborations with companies and designers of luxury furnishings that offer exclusive and customized solutions synonymous with elegance and prestige.

Mauro Varotti is the owner of his eponymous furniture firm specialized in marquetry and exquisite inlaid works located in Rimini, a historic town along the Adriatic coast. Varotti’s tremendous passion for his job gives life to his creations, unique objects of art that take center stage in any refined home. He established the artistic brand Intarsia after meeting with antique art and jewelry dealer Massimo Giorgi, who owns a gallery in the nearby town of Cattolica.

Matteo di Ciommo is a Milan-based designer who has worked with Michele De Lucchi since 2013 and collaborated in the past with designer Francesco Faccin. He is a dreamer and a craftsman, passionate about wood. He has developed a series of temple-shaped boxes whose silhouettes embody the poetic notions of containers as treasure chests that stir a sense of wonder. Everyday life becomes exceptional with the addition of these precious rituals and the visual richness of his artisan-made objects.

Stefano Gerini is an eponymous interior design workshop based in the historic heart of Florence. Founded in 1980 by Stefano and Anna Gerini, the brand draws inspiration from the architectural grandeur of Florentine basilicas, creating furniture, decorative panels, and accent pieces. Gerini uses repurposed wood, salvaged and reimagined with novel decorative elements. Gerini uses traditional Florentine lacquers and waxes to give each piece a distinctive appearance and charm that harmoniously integrates into any decor.

Guided by a strong passion for wood and design innovation, Tropica Design is an interior design workshop with over 50 years of expertise in woodworking. Tropica Design is recognized for its deft attention to detail, continuous research, and meticulous curation of prized woods, resulting in elegant pieces, singular in their excellence and quality. Each contour, color, and finishing is a bold artistic expression. From tables and cabinets to mirrors and sculptural accent pieces, all Tropica Design pieces are handmade in-shop and customizable to fit any decor style.

Vittorio Martini establishes the Ancient Factory Vittorio Martini in Bologna in 1866, specialized in “manufacturing high-precision instruments for technical drawing, computing and engineering". This award-winning workshop continues combining innovation and precision and has now created the MAT4+, a multifunctional writing tool for the contemporary world. These pieces are conceived with the lover of design, high quality, and refined style in mind.

After studying computer engineering and working for 15 years in several factories in Vicenza, in northern Italy, Nicola Tessari decided to dedicate his life to creating one-of-a-kind pieces. He turned his passion into a job and became a craftsman. These furniture pieces and home décor objects are designed to stand the test of time. Crafted with attention to detail and finished mainly using hand tool, each item boasts imperfections and unique signs that are the distinctive features of manual craftsmanship.

Marco Castorina is the heir of an ancient family of carvers, a reference for the prestigious Florence wood artisan guild since 1895. His careful work and research led the shop to be considered unique in its field, becoming a landmark for architects and interior designers, with more than 5.000 items in continuous evolution. The knowledge of the Castorina family is handed down from father to son since the beginning of their activity to safeguard the Florentine heritage.

Paolo Londero was introduced to the world of art by his father who was an engraver and painter and passed down to his son his knowledge in painting and sculpture as well as his passion for antique art. Paolo works in his Milan studio where he divides his time between restoring paintings and precious antique objects, woodcarving, sculpting and painting. He does not conform to today’s times but instead retains a deep respect for the past, which is evident in his meticulous works.

Ziranu & Balvis is a woodworking workshop founded in 1960 by Giovanni Ziranu. Located in the small town of Orani in the Province of Nuoro, Sardinia, it combines classic techniques of carpentry with traditional Sardinian inlay works and engravings. Ziranu passed on his knowledge and the workshop’s reins to his nephew Francesco Balvis, who, inspired by his uncle’s mastery, now creates traditional and modern furniture for the company.

Architect and artisan Riccardo Monte specializes in timber charring, a technique that consists in firing the bottom of wooden posts inspired by the ancient Japanese technique Shou Sugi ban used for timber preservation. Embracing the visual and tactile qualities of the technique, he creates bold, monolithic furniture distinguished by a singular texture. After working in London as an architect, he returned to his mountainside home in Ornavasso, Italy in 2016 and spent six months in a remote mountain cabin to get closer to nature and embrace a simple life.

Back in 1922, Agatino Maccarrone started handcrafting chairs in a small Sicilian village at the foothills of Mount Etna. His workshop has hosted five generations of cabinet makers, earning the company special recognition for over 20 years of experience in furnishing yachts, private jets, and luxury hotels. Passion, expertise, and technology are at the core of Maccarrone’s philosophy, characteristics that can be recognized and appreciated in every single watch winder, cigar humidor, bar cabinet, or any other fine case, all deftly handcrafted in Tuscany.

Natalis - Emozioni d’Arte embodies elegance and timelessness which it infuses in their collections and pieces. Part of a family company founded in 2000 and presently based in Slovakia, it works with affluent customers to design masterpieces crafted using noble materials. More than thirty years of experience gained working with one of the best masters in the field of art crafting in Northern Italy, sowed the seeds for the firm’s dynamic approach towards materials and subjects, resulting in a refined selection of artworks ranging from wooden platters to gold statues.

Davide Dessolis lives and works in Mamoiada, a small town in the Sardinian countryside. A master artisan beyond his years, he crafts wooden masks once used in local folklore to scare away evil spirits believed to be responsible for natural disasters. These masks, once worn by Mamuthones - shepherds who gathered in Mamoiada for these anti-evil rituals - are crafted at his workshop, Lumera, with the same patience and attention to detail to preserve a century-old Sardinian tradition.