See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Originally from Zurich, Maja was always keen to leave Switzerland and with an Italian grandmother perhaps Italy was always going to be her destination. She moved to Italy in 1991. She speaks to us about how her approach to work has changed. When she was young she liked seeing the impression her hands made on the work, while now she seeks smoothness and perfection. We meet Maja at her home - Artists Hill - an old farmhouse, surrounded by olive ...
May 22, 2025•28 min•Ep. 64
Guarda le foto e leggi di più su materiallyspeaking.com Ursula è nata a Seravezza e vive e lavora ancora nella zona di Pietrasanta e ha anche trascorso un periodo di apprendimento delle tecniche speciali di mosaico di Ravenna e Spilimbergo. Facciamo un giro nel suo studio e tra le sue numerose scatole di tessere. Quando le chiediamo quanto sia importante la luce nella composizione di un mosaico, Ursula ci spiega che una delle prime cose che fa quando accetta un incarico è vedere dove verrà collo...
May 22, 2025•14 min•Ep. 63
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Dutch artist Anne-Claire trained and worked as a lawyer until she followed her heart to become an artist. She moved to Pietrasanta, where she lived, and worked, for 15 years. Now she divides her time between the Hague and Pietrasanta. After the pandemic she was looking for a way to capture peoples’ thoughts and emotions in order to make a three-dimensional sculpture of them in clay. Having discovered that a traditional scanner was unable to gr...
Feb 12, 2025•25 min•Ep. 62
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com A sculptor and painter born in Damascus, Usama tells of the impact of being brought up in Syria and of continuously dealing with people from different religions with diverse ways of looking at things. Usama’s studio space, and home, is tucked away in the shadow of the statuario marble quarries. Usama bought the space in this historic marble area because he felt an urgency to build a stone amphitheatre there. Initially he dismissed the land bec...
Jan 22, 2025•29 min•Ep. 61
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Originally from Oregon, John moved around America a lot as a child. Although he was not formally schooled as an artist, he received his education at a young age while travelling with his family through Europe and the Middle East. There he took in many of the great works of antiquity. John came to sculpture in his thirties from a background in painting, and very quickly began carving monumental pieces which he was able to sell. It was at this t...
Nov 27, 2024•12 min•Ep. 60
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Sandy first came to Italy to be with her partner, the sculptor John Fisher, and enjoyed the influences of the Italian Renaissance, and the detailed work of the Baroque. From observing the sculptors she learned about shadow and light, negative shape and profile lines. However, she was offered a three month artist residency in a paper making village in Japan where she discovered an economy of stroke and a muted palette which inspired her to deve...
Nov 22, 2024•18 min•Ep. 59
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com On 15th April, 2019 a catastrophic fire broke out in Notre Dame Cathedral. Parisians watched in horror as the spire fell and most of the roof was destroyed. In the aftermath it became clear that a large area was contaminated with toxic dust and lead. The iconic building, which has dominated the Île de la Cité island in Paris since the Middle Ages, is a national symbol not only for the French but for people all over the world. President Macron ...
Apr 19, 2024•46 min•Ep. 58
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com The flags are out, the bunting too, and the red and white mascot Burlamacco is everywhere as Viareggio eagerly awaits the start of Carnival. The trees are heavy with oranges, the sweet fried dough, chiacchiere , are in the pastry shops - there’s excitement in the air! Dating back to 1873, Viareggio’s Carnival attracts thousands of visitors each year to watch the enormous, intricate papier-mâché sculptures dance their way along the seaside prom...
Feb 09, 2024•28 min•Ep. 57
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Gabriele talks to us about his upbringing in Genoa, his self-taught artistic training, his love for the history of art, and for photography. He explains the process of creating pebble mosaics, including the selection of stones and the use of lime mortar. He also discusses the importance of preserving the skills and techniques of mosaic making and the impact of climate change on the availability of materials. We met Gabriele in a city park call...
Jan 24, 2024•25 min•Ep. 56
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com We settle down to chat outside Robin Bell’s home at a sheltered table with a spectacular view of the sea, from Pisa to La Spezia, and the never ending horizon. An exterior storage space against a yellow wall reveals shelves laden with maquettes and sculptures in various stages of completion. Robin discusses his move from working with marble to bronze and his focus on creating larger sculptures. He shares stories about some of his notable commi...
Dec 13, 2023•23 min•Ep. 55
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com The long, narrow, glass-walled studio of Janice Mehlman is perched half way up the steep garden of her home, on a hillside near Pietrasanta. Many of her abstract photographs are hung on crisp white walls, and she welcomes us inside to look at some of her work from the last 30 years. She explains how she started as a photographer, focusing on black-and-white images of architecture. After creating an image that captured a chance moment of light ...
Nov 29, 2023•22 min•Ep. 54
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Steaven Richard evolved his craft as an apprentice to several artisan blacksmiths over many years and in many countries, before establishing his own atelier in Paris specialising in artistic metalwork Soon demand for his work, from architects and designers, grew - and he needed more space. To accommodate this, he moved to a large warehouse in Valenton and expanded his team of blacksmiths and metalworkers who combine traditional skills, and new...
Jul 19, 2023•20 min•Ep. 53
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Xavier Montoy grew up in a family of doctors and was always keen on biology. When he chose an artistic route he wanted to focus attention on endangered insects to highlight how we should honour and conserve them. As part of our Paris series, Mike Axinn and I go to the 11th arrondissement of Paris to meet Xavier and see how he creates jewellery with the Sternocera beetle. Sternocera aequisignata live in Southeast Asia, especially in northeast T...
Jul 05, 2023•24 min•Ep. 52
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Judith’s workshop is in the 10th arrondissement, tucked away in a courtyard behind huge iron gates where tall white buildings house workshops, and motorbikes and cars are squeezed against the walls. There are lines of plants in terracotta pots and a small white dog. Judith greets us in her office where a history of her instruments line one wall – some with painted gold detail and others with fine marquetry work in wood. She makes instruments o...
Jun 14, 2023•26 min•Ep. 51
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Sylvain always loved cooking and when he discovered a passion for working with metal and wood he trained so he could create kitchen knives for chefs. Mike Axinn and I travelled to Paris to meet four artisans. In the first of our series we talk with Sylvain Maenhout who took the decision to retrain as an artisan in his late 30s. Becoming an artisan has given him the ability to work from home and have a more balanced, family-centred life. Findin...
May 26, 2023•24 min•Ep. 50
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com This spring Mike Axinn and I went to Paris to see how artisans are able to practise their craft in a vibrant, urban setting. We wanted to discover more about the relevance of traditional skills in a world of 21st century technologies. First we met Sylvain Maenhout who gave up a conventional career and moved his family out of central Paris to devote his life to making kitchen knives. Release date : 26 May 2023 We also spoke with Judith Kraft wh...
May 24, 2023•5 min•Ep. 49
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Ron Mehlman grew up in Brooklyn and came to Pietrasanta in the 1980s. No materials are off limits in his quest for creating sculpture infused with spirit and life. As we settle down to talk by his warm log-burning stove, Ron describes the two walls of his studio with their alphabet of colourful abstract sculptures – created from stone, wood and bronze – each one perched on its own individual shelf. The project started as a way of making thin s...
Apr 26, 2023•29 min•Ep. 48
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Nicola Stagetti of Stagetti Studios in Pietrasanta, and Robin Sethi, the project coordinator from India, describe the creation of Pramashwar the Infinite. Artisan and studio head Nicola Stagetti spoke to us from his studios, where historic busts line the shelves and the familiar roar of his robot emanates from the next room. Nicola completed his art education in Pietrasanta and went on to become an apprentice in his father’s workshop, then cal...
Mar 22, 2023•15 min•Ep. 47
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com John Greer finds art gives him an invaluable structure in life. Expressing himself in form is more important than a visual language. Professor of sculpture for 26 years at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, John was the catalyst for the ‘Halifax Sculpture’ movement in the 1990s which was rooted in minimalism and conceptualism. Inspiration for his sculpture often comes from Ancient Celtic stones and Greek sculpture and he lik...
Mar 08, 2023•35 min•Ep. 46
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Carnevale originated in pagan rituals celebrating winter turning to spring. For Christians it offers a brief hiatus before the rigours of Lent – hence the name ‘carnem levare’ – which means ‘to take away meat’. This is a time to create chaos, to question and poke fun at authority and, for the artisans of Viareggio, the opportunity to say something meaningful to the public and get them involved. La Cittadella del Carnevale, just outside Viaregg...
Feb 15, 2023•22 min•Ep. 45
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Silvano Cattaï born in Belgium, of Italian parentage, came to be an artist in Italy by way of making films in New York. After years in sculpture he finally came back to painting but this time with a sculptural angle, using a plasma gun and paint on aluminium. Silvano’s studio houses his powerful plasma equipment, and protective gear. On the walls are metal-working tools, shelves with tubes of oil paints. Around the studio are neatly stacked ro...
Feb 08, 2023•34 min•Ep. 44
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com German born Vanessa Paschakarnis migrated to Nova Scotia before coming to Pietrasanta in northern Italy. Hers is a philosophical approach to sculpture. I met Vanessa through Californian photographer, Gail Skoff, who took a special series of photos of Vanessa, which you can see on this page. In front of her studio-home is a dusty yard filled with her work. She works in large series’ and themes include horned and winged beings, beasts, and shado...
Jan 25, 2023•33 min•Ep. 43
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com In the third of our Venice series, Mike and I are meeting furniture restorer Alvisé Boccanegra who trained in restoration in the workshops of the Church of San Marco. He tells how he repaired a crucifix after Venice flooded in 2019. Alvisé’s workshop is in the heart of San Polo on the ground floor of the building where he was born. Inside it smells of wood and linseed oil and there are neat shelves of brightly coloured powdered paints and a la...
Dec 14, 2022•37 min•Ep. 42
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com In this, the second of our Venice series, Mike Axinn and I met Austrian born shoemaker Gabriele Gmeiner who makes high quality made-to-measure shoes in her workshop at Campiello del Sol. She speaks of her craft, her journey from Austria and why she chose Venice. As we turned into Gabriele’s courtyard we found her sitting at a large wooden desk by her shop window, wearing a work apron, and smiling. A shoe was jammed between her knees as she fil...
Nov 30, 2022•36 min•Ep. 41
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Piero Dri is the fourth and youngest remer in Venice, making oars and oarlocks - or in Italian ‘forcolai’. Since he learnt to row aged 4, rowing has been his passion. I came to Venice with sound specialist Mike Axinn for a special Venice series of Materially Speaking, during the Homo Faber celebration of artisans, in April 2022. We met three young artisans who are now bringing a fresh energy to the community with a particular eye on repair, re...
Nov 16, 2022•38 min•Ep. 40
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com In the Spring of 2022, sound specialist Mike Axinn and I went to Venice during Homo Faber , an event created by the Michelangelo Foundation to celebrate master craftsmanship. We wanted to discover more about the community of younger artisans in Venice - what brought them there, and why they liked it. First we met Piero Dri, a remer who makes oars and oarlocks, or as the Italians call them, ‘forcolai’. Since he learnt to row aged 4, rowing has ...
Nov 14, 2022•4 min•Ep. 39
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Marianna Blier was born in Astrakhan, Russia but moved to Vienna in 2007. She now divides her time between her atelier in Vienna, Austria and her marble studios in Carrara, Italy. Eminent Californian photographer Gail Skoff introduced Marianna, and when I followed Gail on one of her photography trips, Marianna was standing on a table top, in a large workshop in the centre of Carrara. Wearing goggles and earmuffs she was leaning over a tall scu...
Nov 02, 2022•35 min•Ep. 38
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Celebrated figurative sculptor Daphné Du Barry speaks seven languages and modelled for Salvador Dali in her 20s. She discusses her bronzes, her love of learning and her faith. Born in Holland, Daphné studied at Munich University and afterwards, at McGill in Canada. Later she enrolled at the Sorbonne in Paris to study modern literature. She had a brief career as a chanteuse in Paris and then became an artist. She studied drawing with the Hungar...
Oct 19, 2022•28 min•Ep. 37
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Renowned sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld continually re-invents herself in her search for a vocabulary of form. Helaine’s work communicates on all levels: visual, tactile and emotional. She is well-known for her public art and her sculptures often seems weightless as she strives to portray something spiritual. Her work is a continuous journey of discovery and growth. Helaine tells us about becoming an artist, her unstoppable urge to create and how...
Oct 05, 2022•35 min•Ep. 36
See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Nilda Comas knew she’d be an artist from a very young age, and now she’ll be the first Hispanic master sculptor to create a statue for the US National Statuary Hall. She describes her journey, from a childhood in Puerto Rico to coming to Italy and learning carving skills from the artisans in Pietrasanta. Following the shocking Charleston church shooting in 2015, the State of Florida decided to change one of the two sculptures representing them...
Jul 13, 2022•56 min•Ep. 35
