ALBUM workshops
GIOSA Milan, via Ciovasso 6 If you pass along the via Ciovasso, you will be surely attracted by the windows of this workshop, a kaleidoscope of nealty displayed leather goods: bags in refined shapes, belts, wallets, shoes, suitcases, briefcases. All made with the best crocodile skin. It is the shop-workshop of Giorgio Santamaria, carrying on the craft he learnt as a child from his parents, owners of a worhshop in Porta Ticinese. He works with the same passion, helped by his wife, his son Gioele and a couple of expert craftsmen. Specialised in the art of working crocodile, ostrich and lizard skins, he prepares the models, nails the skins to the tables, polishes them with agate stone, stitches, finishes the inside with precious linings. You can see him at work bent over the large working table facing the street. The first-quality leathers come from a renowned French tannery supplying also Hermès. To have an idea of the variety of their creations it is enough to walk down the stairs to the basement: here all sorts of models are aligned in a wide range of colours, from turquoise to orange, from violet to dark blue, from black to brown. Santamaria is also very good at reproducing old shapes from a sample and restore vintage models. www.giosa.eu
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PASTICCERIA CAPPELLO Palermo, via Colonna Rotta 68 Near Piazza Indipendenza, Cappello is one of the historical shops in Palermo, a true institution for the lovers of chocolate and cakes. Established as a dairy in the Forties, this shop was developed by Salvatore, the bright son of the founders, who in the Seventies decided to refine his training in the confectionery art in Turin. When he came back to Palermo, he turned the family activity into a patisserie known throughout Sicily. His favourite ingredient is chocolate, “imported” to Palermo from Turin. Among Cappello’s specialities, the Kenia coffee cake, the chocolate mousse with flambé pears, the mixed berries mousse, the Delizia cake with Bronte pistachios and almond sponge cake, the lemon marmelade. And fruit sherbets covered with pistachio ice-cream and a banana sponge cake without flour, ideal for gluten-free diets. Among the titbits that have made the patisserie so famous are the pralines filled with liquor or cream, and Sole di Sicilia, a pistachio sweet glazed with chocolate. The winner of many awards for excellence in Sicily, Cappello is now member of the Accademia dei Pasticcieri Italiani. His son Giovanni is brilliantly following his tradition. www.pasticceriacappello.it
SYLVIE SAINT-ANDRÉ PERRIN Paris The atelier of the great master ceramist Sylvie Saint-André Perrin is hidden in a beautiful courtyard in the XV arrondissement. She produces dishes, bowls and objects for the table and the house, working clay, pigments and oxides with the techniques she herself invented. The effects are really extraordinary: pieces with shades ranging from dark blue to ochre, from green to grey, from rust to black. The patterns can be minimalist or rich in sinuous shapes and are never commonplace. As some important brands who order her exclusive collections discovered. The manufacturing technique is slow and complex, and production is limited to no more than 16 pieces a day. When the clay is poured into the mould and partially hardened, it is grated to a thin layer, then filed with steel wool and baked at 980 °C before it is varnished with a thin layer of transparent enamel and then placed into the kiln for a second baking. Recently the virtuoso artisan widened her range of decorations to include flowers and butterflies, introducing new techniques. Every object is unique, never similar to another. Sylvie Saint-André Perrin’s objects are sold in Paris as well as in many other cities, London, San Francisco and New York to name but a few. www.ateliersap.com
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