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BRUNO VILLANI, goldsmith, modelist and designer, trained directly “on the job” at the workshop of “Mast Antonio” where he learnt the basics of goldsmith art, following the motto “watch and steal the trade”. The young apprentice considered the authentic experience in the workshop a privilege. He was assigned to prepare the cords for the cameos and murrine beads a relatively easy task with yellow gold: with the round ruby process, each diameter had its calibrated hole, it was blocked in the vice and pulled by hand. The difficulty arose with white gold, which had to be annealed every two passings and, despite that, it sometimes broke and the thread whipped backwards due to its snapping. The ideas designed at school during the “Professional Design” lesson became reality in the workshop: the first drawing was geometric, enclosed in a 6x6 cm square, it was brought to the workshop and glued to a plate, the holes were made using the flexible drill and the fretwork with the appropriate hacksaw. At the “Modern jewellery design” school, the teacher gave a topic, a general indication, the sketch and the outline were made, and the imagination was freed. Once the right idea was found for a specific object, the subsequent phases were the technical table, plan, elevation, section, axonometry and finally the watercolour drawing to make it as real as possible, corresponding to what is now known as “rendering”. Once he completed his apprenticeship, the designer obtained his diploma in Florence from the Institute of Art, Metal and Goldsmithing section, and later, always in Florence, graduated from the Academy, Sculpture section. He currently works for a firm of High Fashion accessories; from goldsmith technician he now works in accessories, deals with prototypes and microfusion, but his dream remains that of “creating” and designing, in search of new visions of jewels, complements, accessories.
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