The name "Il Picchio Nero" was officially born in 2015, from the will to conceptually express my love for woodworking and a strong connection with nature. In fact, as a former cabinetmaker, I have always loved working with wood, a passion certainly passed on to me by my grandfather since I was very young, and refined over the years with other masters.
I am fundamentally curious and a perfectionist, character traits that constantly push me towards research and in-depth analysis. I think this had great weight in my decision to make a total change of direction, after having made my first two pipes, almost for fun. Works that were conceptually and factually incorrect, of course, but which ignited in me the will to to dissect the pipe object.
Looking for someone who could teach me, I managed to meet the craftsman with whom, for two years, six hours a day, I took my very first steps in the world of pipemaking.
The desire to create my own style, my own personal culture, my own adequate method, to continue the journey, led me to determine what that I needed the two years of apprenticeship, to make a clean sweep of everything else and start again from scratch, trying my hand at classical forms. is a mechanism that I continuously implement: I study, I delve deeper, I grasp what that I need and I start again with new knowledge and skills. In fact, to date, I produce classic pipes but also many free shapes, interpreting concepts from the Danish school, a style that I consider an excellent testing ground for testing the new notions learned and which more it suits to my personal vision.
I make pipes from heather briar, bog oak and olive tree. I love giving an aesthetic accent to my creations, through the combination of inserts made with valuable essences or other materials of equally precious quality. The evolution of my pipes, thus like mine, as a craftsman, is still in place today. I'm aiming for growing technical completeness and a product that can increasingly come closer to the concept of excellence. I consider the pipe a form of art, of course, but subject to very specific laws of physics.
A simple object but anything but easy to create: complex, in its essential being.
A precise drilling technique is of fundamental importance, at the basis of the correct mechanics of each pipe, together with the right ratios, the balance, the execution of the mouthpiece with adequate thicknesses for optimal comfort.
No less important is aesthetics, the reading and interpretation of wood, the harmony of shapes, color combinations and, what is more, which for me is of great importance, the brightness and continuity of the reflection along the pipe. Light never lies: the reflection that has no interruptions, that constantly follows the shapes, that does not break its lines along the body of the object, is synonymous with cleanliness in execution.