ITALIAN CRAFTMANSHIP
100% handmade manufacture. Skillful Neapolitan masters jealously guard the arts of jewelry and cameos and precious stones engraving. It all starts with a precious shell, an inspiring image and a skilled artist. Typical handmade manufacture from the Gulf of Naples that dates back to ancient times.
The processing of the cameo consists of multiple steps, of fundamental importance is the incision work, the craftsman create figures using the seashells’ own colors, and thus creating unique and unrepeatable pieces.
THE PREPARATION
An operation that requires a trained eye. Only a well-chosen seashell will allow the engraver to have a good, consistent and colorful material.
UNCUPPING
The cutting of the top and most convex part of the seashell, “the cup”. Today this operation is carried out with a diamond blade.
MARK AND SHAPING
The master draws the edges of the cameos inside the cup, the mark of the external cut to perform and he cuts it along the indicated perimeter, obtaining polygonal shaped pieces.
EMBELLISHMENT
With the aid of a carborundum grinding wheel, the shell pieces are given the desired shape, typically unconventional in our art cameos.
TARRING AND FLAKING
The obtained pieces are attached to a wooden spindle with hot mastic consisting of rosin, wax and scagliola; with the aid of a carborundum grinding wheel the outer part of the shell gets abraded, leaving on the surface the clear layer to engrave.
INCISION AND FINISH
DRAWING
The master draws paintings made by artists from the 900s to reproduce on the surface of the seashell.
SKETCH AND ENGRAVING
Little by little, with wide-tipped burins the white clear part in excess is removed and the picture is sketched out in its essence; the engraving is made with burins of different shapes and sizes to make the relief more defined and accentuated.
FINISHING TOUCH
The details of the figures on the relief are engraved with thinner burins.
POLISH
the cameo, removed from the spindle, is brushed with pumice and oil to obtain a smoother surface.