Italian goldsmith,
Giovanni Corvaja's fascination for metal, especially the precious ones, began in his childhood. Today this incredible artisan shows off his affinity for metal through his outstanding work. He has devoted 10 years of research and 2 years of studio time to his unique pieces aptly called the
Golden Fleece Collection. The technique he developed involves drawing wire down to an increasingly finer thread which profoundly alters the properties of gold. The super fine gold wires become softer and smooth to the touch, rather like fur.
The super fine "furry" bracelet above was the 4th one made in his collection. It consists of a hollow perforated torus with 12,672 holes and over 1.2 million single wires (28 km of wire in total). The inner surface is covered with 4,000 platinum granules arranged in a hexagonal grid. This piece took him 1,250 hours to complete!
How fine is fine?
The diameter of human hair ranges anywhere from 17 to 181 microns (millionths of a meter). Giovanni draws down gold wire to less than 10 microns. And he does it all by hand as you can see from his workshop pictures.
No wonder he named his collection the
Golden Fleece after the Greek myth where Jason and the Argonauts aquired it from a gold haired winged ram.
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| Bracelet - Gold with black enamel |
What he does with extremely fine gold wire is nothing short of amazing!
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| Bracelet detail |
He is now located in Todi, a historic Etruscan town. How fitting is that? The Ancient Etruscans were fabulous goldsmiths. He restored a 15th century building and transformed it into a spacious and fully equipped workshop where he also gives intensive workshops in either English or Italian.
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| Gold Pentagonal Brooch |
Giovanni's work has been exhibited internationally and his pieces are in numerous museum collections worldwide including the V&A Musuem of Art and Design in London, UK, the National Gallery in Australia and the Newark Museum in the US.
His work can be purchased through Adrian Sasson.
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