The new lives of handmade Bucchero and Terracotta: unique accessories for design spaces
Bucchero and Terracotta: the classic blends with experimentation and the handmade terracotta and bucchero, noble materials with a long tradition, live new lives. The watchword is contamination: unprecedented combinations give life to relationships of mutual gratification based on passion and enthusiasm for experimental processes. Furnishing accessories and decorative objects are created for domestic environments, as well as for convivial spaces. Unique objects, exclusive desires, new products capable of enhancing materials of extreme beauty and with a thousand-year history by combining craftsmanship, technology and decorative systems, going beyond the already known.
A carafe of wine, the ‘vasella’ in bucchero, the handmade terracotta jars present themselves as “pieces of art” with the aim of being shown and exhibited and also being functional.
The skillful craftsmanship makes it possible to create custom-made pieces, unique objects intended for the interiors and exteriors of homes, hotels, offices, professional studios, art galleries.
The “Unique” furnishing accessories offered by Krei are designed for customers who love design and artistic craftsmanship and are looking for original, in some ways unique and unrepeatable objects.
The black terracotta of the Etruscans: a contemporary vision
The black technique on the type of Etruscan Bucchero is a magic technique that consists in cooking items in a reducing atmosphere, i.e. without oxygen. It is a process that allows to obtain black coloured pieces, which strongly show the essence of the ceramic process. Millennial ceramics, with a monochrome character, lends itself to the search for innovative forms.
The bucchero is strong in ancient knowledge, worked with traditional techniques such as modeling by hand, on the lathe, through phases such as forging, drying and burnishing. The last step is the cooking which takes place in special ovens at a temperature above 900° with an oxygen-free atmosphere in such a way that the combustion of the wood creates carbon monoxide and, combined with the red ferric oxide of the clay, transforms it giving that typical dark colour.
The word Bucchero comes from the Portuguese “bucàro” which means fragrant land, with a particular reference to the reddish soil used in Spain and Portugal to make vases of great artistic value. In Italy the name is associated to the fine ceramics brought to light during the excavations carried out in the Etruscan necropolis. In fact, the Etruscans would have made great use of the typical black ceramic to produce everyday items made fascinating by the characteristic shiny surface, the elegant shape and the precious workmanship. This ancient art finds its outlet in Umbria, specifically in Gubbio, between the end of the 1400s and the beginning of the 1500s and has been handed down to the present day.
Bucchero: a powerful aesthetic in interior design
To best combine it in interior design, you need to know how to play with the right nuances, those that allow the environment not to appear too dark or to lose that allure that black, better than anyone else, can give.
The natural colour of Bucchero from black to gray combined with the different finishes and the artisan moulding of the real handmade terracotta gives an ecological material, unique in tone and shape, singular in the method of realization, with a precious and timeless final effect.
In a set of experience, tradition but also research, technology and experimentation, Krei has selected bucchero as the material of choice for “Unique” furnishing accessories.
Caligo, a first example, where folds and flaps create pieces of art skillfully worked by expert hands.
The irregular texture of Caliupto, like a wavy motion, releases the ancient strength of bucchero, creating a material effect of great power, almost bordering on art, breaking the integral monochrome of black.
Suitable for coverings, for spaces of contemporary architecture: luxury restaurants, trendy bars, classy interiors, design hotels.
Handmade terracotta for tailor-made accessories.
The handmade terracotta is transformed into customized furnishing accessories. The skillful craftsmanship will make it possible to create tailor-made pieces, unique objects intended for the interiors and exteriors of homes, hotels, offices, professional studios, art galleries.
The artisan process of terracotta unfolds from the clay to the furnace.
Natural and sustainable material, handmade terracotta has clay and rainwater as raw materials. Simple elements that give life to an ancient material of the highest technical level. The extracted clay is laminated and purified until it is uniform and soft, to become, with the addition of water, a dough for bricks to be worked by hand, which is then left to mature protected from atmospheric agents. The moulding of the brick is done cold in wooden molds of different sizes, totally by hand, giving the beauty of diversity to each brick. Natural drying requires that the brick is left to dry in the air so that the mixture of clay and water stabilizes before it can be fired. The latter takes place in the traditional wood-burning oven with the bricks gradually brought to approx. 1000° C for 24 hours so that the mineral components of the clay undergo the transformations that give the handmade terracotta durability.
Terracotta for interior design
The aesthetic result of terracotta goes well with different furnishing styles, not just with rustic environments as we might think. On the contrary, it gives a suggestive effect even if combined in a modern context.
With sculptural shapes, trays/centrepieces and jars seem to take charge of the millenary history of handmade terracotta, shaped into new dynamic silhouettes capable of giving shape to unique accessories such as precious works of art for interior design.
The Centenarius vase made following the classic Umbrian method of coating terracotta, reveals in the folds of the “unique” accessories savoir faire at times unexplored, gestures that in the intimacy of the creative process model new silhouettes for already known objects.
Strengthened by a heritage that has been handed down from generation to generation, today the production of handmade terracotta uses the same techniques and materials of the past: wooden moulds, clay from the purest quarries, rainwater and cooking in the wood-burning oven for bricks with warm nuances. A method of craftsmanship that through a particular treatment and firing of the clay, leads to the creation of high quality handmade terracotta.
Cariat is a particular tray/centrepiece pushed upwards by three mini columns that seem to take charge of the millenary history of handmade terracotta. It is shaped into new dynamic silhouettes capable of shaping unique accessories such as precious works of art for interior design.
