Lorenzo Foglia

The Foglia family has been working with precious metals for three generations. Lorenzo himself started in 1985, but, as he likes to underline, “it would be more correct to say that I was born into the business, as is often the case in families of artists and artisans, where you breathe in the craft from a very early age.” He describes his training as ‘open’, meaning “I firmly believe that only through comparison and the mixing of cultures and energies can we achieve the tools to create works that have a relevance from an artistic and design point of view.” In 1999, he started his entrepreneurial journey with Foglia Argenteria, which in 2015 became Foglia Firenze 1935 in acknowledgement of the 80 years of silversmithing and goldsmithing heritage passed on by his grandfather first to his father and finally to Lorenzo.

Foglia Firenze 1935 was born from a desire to highlight the cultural association of jewellery with art. As well as employing many traditional techniques associated with goldsmith and silversmith work to create unique jewellery, Lorenzo Foglia also uses contemporary methods such as 3D modelling. Lorenzo learnt gold chiselling techniques from a very young age, which are now foundational elements of his creations. Continual experimentation, as well as experience gained through restoration projects and a firm theoretical grounding, are all key to the production of truly avant-garde jewellery. He considers that a chiseller must have a sum of skills ranging from drawing and planning to sculpture, as well as a profound historical and philosophical knowledge of the arts from ancient to contemporary creations.

From an early age, Lorenzo Foglia was told that his craft was a "work of patience". And it certainly does take a long time to create a piece, as well as, somewhat ironically, many hammer blows. The notion of his craft as a proverbial “work of patience” is incomprehensible to Lorenzo, however. He considers that no one would think of saying that a pianist is patient because he eagerly presses the black and white keys of a piano for hours. Nor would they think, looking at Michelangelo's Last Judgment, that it was patience that was needed to make all those brushstrokes! He considers patience to emanate from the slavish and meaningless repetition of a gesture, rather than being a means to true creation. “Let's think about when we make love, because this is the only way to create it, they have had the same movements for millions of years, but nobody gets bored!” And so, when Lorenzo creates, every stroke is dynamic and carries all his feelings: there is no trace of patience, only creative fury.

Italy and Japan: Marvellous Liaisons Exhibition