It's impossible to underestimate the number of incredible arts and artisans in Chianti and the surrounding areas.
Nora Kravis has left Long Island in 1972 to Radda in Chianti: she had a degree in art, but was the passion for quadrupeds that before led her to make the trainer of horses, and then put on a herd of Cashmere goats at her stone cottage in the valleys of Volpaia. The first in Italy, and the first 'brick' for the creation of a company that operates in the field of luxury goods with a line of natural textile for the person and for the house.
At Barberino Val d'Elsa, the production of ceramics by Andrea Biagini, that in the lab built next to his house he is dedicated to pottery, to the paper clay (making pots that are a mixture of clay and paper), and especially to the turning of porcelain, because his preference is the Japanese ceramics.
The pottery is also found in Tavarnelle, with the workshop Il Tafano, and in Radda, with Decori nel Tempo (specializing in the production of lamps, mirrors, fabrics and miniatures) and with Rampini ceramics, whose work will bring us back in Renaissance Florence , when the Medici celebrating the art of good food in their castles and country villas presenting the dishes in beautiful decorated dinner services.
Franco Bozzi, in Greve, makes sculptures from recycled wood. Also in Greve, Patrizio, wood turner, produces wonderful Pinocchio, Mr. Fagioli is one of the few craftsmen who still dedicate themselves to the art of realization of the baskets. In San Casciano find another turner, Mr. Lapini, and then Carlo Chiti, which produces the Terrecotte del Chianti at the Fornace di Gabbiano, making each piece by hand with the land of Galestro.
The craftsmen of metals produce for the activities more traditional (Giachini in Tavarnelle works for cellars and oil mills) and for those more advanced (Stefano Failli, in San Casciano, works metal for artists). At the Fonderia Del Giudice in Greve there is at the same time an ancient Renaissance art workshop, where three generations have handed down the art of the technique of lost wax casting, and a modern workshop where, thanks to the technological innovations adopted, Giacomo e Sarah Del Giudice realizes constantly works of architects and contemporary sculptors Italian and international.
In Tavarnelle the creations of Lea Bilanci : books, herbals, albums, cards, envelopes, boxes, made with cards of various sizes, density and texture, using spices, herbs, plants, flowers, fibers and tissues.
In the countryside of Gaiole we find "Le Conce", the pottery workshop of Studio Fernandez, where Margherita and Olivier Fernandez produce porcelain, hard porcelain and bronze and they have created a special 'blend' between the Tuscan tradition and other cultures , especially the English and Japanese.
We end the roundup as we had begun: with a woman, a foreign, but now completely Chianti: Stefanie Dux, who from Germany has planted a hand-weaving workshop in Gaiole in Chianti, near the Castle of Brolio, where transforms the linen , cotton and hemp in beautiful fabrics, using frames older than 300 years.
We stop here, even though this long list remains open.