In Italy, A Tale of Two Generations

In Italy, a deeply rooted passion for artisanship is matched only by growing anxieties surrounding the precarious future of craftsmanship. Nest’s Annie Millican spent time visiting with several of the country’s artisan enterprises to better understand the juxtaposing approaches old and new generations are taking in pursuit of a single goal: cultural preservation: “On the one hand, there is Clarissa Atelier, a young jewelry company whose artisan-designer is committed to learning ancient gold-smithing and lost wax techniques in an effort to rescue her family patrimony; on the other, you have Coltelleria Saladini, a centuries-old company of Italian knife-makers carrying on an inherited trade that dates back to the 14th century. For both, artisanship is considered foundational to Italian identity.“