Pietra ollare and mosaics.
Floriana Palmieri lives and works in the Valtellina a deep valley in Northern Italy bordering the Swiss Alps. The valley is crossed by Val Malenco, a rugged valley pushing upwards to glacial peaks, famous among minerologists for their mineral wealth. 153 different types of minerals have been classified to date. Among the serpentine roks that go back to the Mesozoic period, there is a peculiare stratum known as postone or “pietra ollare” which is the raw material for Floriana’s art and craftsmanship. The Italian word “pietra ollare” derives from the Latin word “olla” or pot. In fact, even in ancient times this grey-green stone was used to make cooking pots, and the same traditional technique is still used to turn it today.
But Floriana Palmieri, in the course of her research into new forms and techniques, has found new applications for this traditional material in the field of furnishing and ornamental art objects. She succeeds in combining artistic talent and professional skills, creating unique examples in her studio, where engravings, bas-reliefs, and graffiti on stone are produced exclusively by hand with steel points, using special chisels.
Her work has received widespread recognition both in Itly and abroad and her awards include silver and gold medals in the Florence International Crafts Fair. Her creations were among those chosen to represent Italy in the Tokyo Expo (1984) and theBrisbane Expo(1988) as well as at the Artigian-Arte Lombardia exibitions in Tokyo, Antwerp, Monza, Lubiana, Toronto, New York, Milan, St Petersburg, Berlin and Buenos Aires, Between 1933 and 1999. Is Senatore dell’Artigianato.