Week 2023
What's on
First Intro
Milan Design Week 2023 – For Milan Design Week 2023, Osanna Visconti opens the doors to her new creative space in via Santa Marta.
Second Intro
Milan Design Week 2023 – For Milan Design Week 2023, Osanna Visconti opens the doors to her new creative space in via Santa Marta.
Third Intro
Milan Design Week 2023 – For Milan Design Week 2023, Osanna Visconti opens the doors to her new creative space in via Santa Marta.
Fourth Intro
Milan Design Week 2023 – For Milan Design Week 2023, Osanna Visconti opens the doors to her new creative space in via Santa Marta.
All of Osanna Visconti’s creations are fused in natural bronze using the lost-wax casting method. This ancient technique works with a negative form in which molten metal is cast. Osanna kneads and shapes her initial wax sculpture by hand. As the defining element of her creations, the wax model is used to create a plaster mould. During the drying phase in kilns heated to 650°C, the wax is melted and drained away, leaving behind the negative form for the casting of bronze in the art foundry.
“It’s very difficult to find young people who have the passion to learn this manual job. I hope that tomorrow’s youth will appreciate the beauty in being an artisan.”
Italian designer and maker, Osanna Visconti, casts exquisitely detailed jewellery and objects, both functional and decorative, from natural bronze using the lost wax technique – an ancient method that Greek and Roman artisans have been using since bronze was discovered 3000 years ago. Osanna shares with Cabana Magazine her love of historic buildings, collecting and artisanship, and discusses her hopes for the future of her craft.
A legacy of beauty that transcends time. Osanna Visconti di Modrone: a light-filled journey that starts with art and nature.
Osanna Visconti’s cast-bronze furniture and objects are composites of many elements.
Eloquent, evocative details
from her life in Rome, New York and Milan, the endless beauty of the eternal city intermixes with avant-garde artistic currents.
Serenity and balance
from the impeccable forms that nature produces in a seemingly casual manner, interpreted and faithfully recreated by Osanna.
Tactile experimenting
in her quest for cherished and organic decor; ingenuity, manual skills and raw material literally fuse together.
For Milan Design Week 2023, Osanna Visconti opens the doors to her creative space in a private, never-before-seen Atelier close to her historic workshop in Via Santa Marta. Here, caressed by warm light, sit the iconic pieces that best represent her work from recent years, along with a selection of extraordinary, new creations. Cast-bronze branches embellish the black, lacquered Cabinet and the Rami Console; wind-blown rose and hydrangea petals and leaves are embossed upon the semi-polished top of the Primavera Table; and olive branches weaving through Apulian vegetable gardens inspire her second Console, a piece which pays tribute to traditional craftsmanship.
Inspiration
«In the quietude of a walk in the woods, my attention is captured by a leaf, a fallen branch. One out of hundreds. I select and collect it. A gift from nature that I celebrate through my creative spirit and then freeze in time, transforming into a piece of bronze. Yes, what I love most about my work is the sense of eternity, immortality”.
Creative Process
Primavera Dinner Table in Bronze
Wind-blown rose and hydrangea petals and leaves are embossed upon the semi-polished top of the Primavera Table. Each rose and hydrangea petal was chosen by Osanna which she fused into Natural Bronze. Just like her Petali vases, which appear light and delicate yet strong enough to stand the test of time.
Osanna in her home workshop carefully selecting the rose and hydrangea petals.
Coverture phase of lost-wax casting, covering the table and petals with clay.
In the art foundry after being fused in bronze.
The table is placed in Osanna's Atelier.
Creative Process
Raw Material
Osanna sources the Bamboo stalks from a Bamboo Forest on the outskirts of the greater metropolitan area of Milan. They are brought to the art foundry where she lays them out on a table. Osanna studies each one to pick the stalks with the most interesting shapes and textures. They are cut into pieces of various sizes; the bottom parts used for more robust projects like the Bamboo library and screen, while the mid sections and top halves are used for the chandelier, seats and mirror.
Coverture Phase
Rather than using a wax mould, the stalks are covered in terracotta and disintegrated in a giant kiln for weeks. Their negative shape is then filled with liquid bronze, at a temperature of 1200°C.
In the Making
Extraction
After the Bronze is extracted from the refractory mould, it is grinded and recycled. The cast-bronze pieces are then washed with a high-pressure water stream. At that point, Osanna inspects the stalks and marks where they should be welded together, according to the composite of her design. Thicker pieces are used to hold the LED lighting, while the smaller fine point branches are used to add more dimension and layers to the chandelier.
In the Making
Welding
Osanna guides the construction of the chandelier, indicating where the cast-bronze Bamboo stalks should be welded together.
Completed Project
Installation
Osanna Visconti's one-of-a-kind Bamboo chandelier is ready to be mounted!
