FRANCESCO DE MAIO
CERAMICA DI VIETRI
ITALY
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FRANCESCO DE MAIO
CERAMICA DI VIETRI
Handcrafted and hand-decorated majolica tiles reinterpret the historical memory, innovate and create redesigning the ceramic according to new tastes and trends...
info@francescodemaio.it
HandMade.
An ancient Art.
The handcraft knowledge and industrial culture do melt together to share the handmade ceramic tradition's values.
Since 1963, the Ceramic of Vietri Francesco De Maio, centuries-old heir to an ancient family tradition, transmits the cultural, artistic heritage of Vietri ceramic.
The respect of this ancient art and the infinite creativity characterize its decorations.
Still today hand-painted piece by piece on the “White Vietri” glaze (Bianco Vietri) when this is still unfired, thus underlining the inestimable value given the final product by this human touch.
BIANCO
VIETRI
The oldmainstay of the production can be seen in the timeless use of bright colour as light: the Bianco Vietri (Vietri White) glaze made up of an exclusive mix of minerals and a particular type of white sand.
This forms the basis of all the colours and decorations.
The enamelling techniques still used today are the bell glazing: the glaze is uniformly distributed on the tiles utilizing a bell; and the glazing bucket: used for more for strips and unique pieces, the Bianco Vietri (Vietri White) glaze is hand-made with a bucket, piece by piece.
Each glazed tile is still unfired. It passes through the hands of the master decorators or sent directly to the firing in the new high-tech plant at a temperature of about 1000° C (1.832° F).
THE HANDCRAFTING
METHODS
Since 1963, always Ceramica Francesco De Maio has been respected for its cultural and artistic heritage through countless generations and has had a handmade production of majolica for over six hundred years, produced with the ancient Vietri processing techniques and with glazes handed down from generation to generation for more than 500 years.
The starting point for Francesco De Maio’s entire production is the heritage of a traditional way of working Vietri ceramic, one which is rich in forms, colours and knowledge. The decorations are still made by hand, piece by piece, on the Bianco Vietri glaze thus underlining the inestimably value given the final product by this human touch.
HANDMADE DECORATION
The decoration is exclusively handmade, piece by piece. It’s the most remarkable and complex technique. You can recognize the expert hand of the master decorators of the Ceramica Francesco De Maio in the decors. The master decorators, with a brush by the thin tip of goose feather, define the outline of the drawings, named “filets”, already set with coal dust, where the decors are created. Today everything is still realized exclusively by the bare hands on the “Bianco Vietri” glaze, still raw, to be cooked.
HAND PRINTING
It’s the forerunner of the silkscreen. A special paper mask, which has the shape of the drawing to be executed, is supported on the tiles, piece by piece, so that the decorator can distribute the colour with a brush. This technique is called patterning.
HAND SILKSCREEN
It’s one of the more straightforward techniques. Using a spatula, the colour is made to filter through a mask, a frame is put on every single tile, with silkscreen containing the impression of the design to be copied on to the tile. The result is a more excellent uniformity and compactness of the coloured surface, making the décor more precise.
HAND BRUSHED
It’s the technique typical of the Vietri ceramics to produce single coloured tiles. It is realized by the passage of a large brush that leaves irregular streaks of colour, named Pennellata (brush stroke). The streaks in different tonalities are characteristic of this way of working.
HAND SPONGED
This is another way of spreading a single tone over a piece. This particular single coloured tile is different because its diaphanous colouration is obtained by the using real sea sponge, soaked of colour, which is repeatedly passed lightly on the tiles, piece by piece.
THE CERAMIC SUPPORTS OF
FRANCESCO DE MAIO
Craft skills, industrial competence, ceramic culture, research and high quality of raw material, make the Ceramica Francesco De Maio a symbol of the excellence of Italy's authentic made.
The decors of Ceramica Francesco De Maio dress of Byzantine, Arabic, Baroque and the Renaissance recalls, using handcrafted glazes wisely mixed with particular sands to furnish walls and floors and to resist during the years. The tiles transform themselves in parts of the furniture through an explosion of compositions.
Classical and modern decors reinterpreted in multiple chromatic nuances are decorated by hand using different supports: handmade terracotta, double-fired and stoneware (Grès Maiolicato®), also anti-slip, for a more technical and versatile result, suitable for any solution.
The respect for ancient art and infinite creativity are the features of Ceramica Francesco De Maio. The carefulness for the traditions and the new dimensions of the future create ceramic products that can also be customized.
HANDMADE TERRA
COTTA
DOUBLE-FIRED
12MM e 13MM
GRES
MAIOLICATO®
NON-SLIP R9 - R10 - R11
DOUBLE-FIRED
10MM
