Lucia Massei

Jewellery maker

©Angelica Braccini

©Federico Cavicchioli

©Lucia Massei

Contemporary jewellery as conceptual art

Lucia creates unique contemporary jewels
She’s inspired by the traces of time
Her pieces are mixed-media artworks

Trained as a goldsmith, Lucia Massei graduated in Painting and Visual Arts at the Fine Arts Academy in Florence, where she developed a love for restoration, archaeology and ancient objects. With such an artistic background, she began to work as a designer of jewellery and fashion accessories, later opening her studio as a jewellery maker in Florence. She is co-founder, director and teacher at Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School. Lucia’s experimental research comes out of her idea of jewellery, conceived as a Fine Art. Her work emerges from a vision and a concept, with no boundaries between art and craft. She also uses non-precious and recycled materials: “It’s the project that makes a jewel valuable.”

Interview

©Federico Cavicchioli

©Federico Cavicchioli

Which kind of materials do you use?: In addition to the typical precious materials, I use non-precious matters and objects, combining them all together. I love old, recycled materials: they had a previous life, they have a story. I give them a second chance, in a sort of alchemic transformation.
What are your sources of inspiration?: I am fascinated by how time works in things and people. I’m inspired by the traces left by ancient civilizations, unknown individual lives, personal objects whose stories have never been told. I am attracted by the lost contest, by the silence of objects.
Did you also learn from a master?: I’ve been very lucky: I could learn from great masters like Giampaolo Babetto and Manfred Bischoff. As director of Alchimia, I meet many talented jewellery designers and makers. But it was from my father that I learned to be an idealist and rise to challenges.
What does contemporary jewellery mean to you?: It means that jewellery is fully an art, which conveys visions and concepts. Jewels are not just precious ornaments. There are important collectors, connoisseurs and dealers all over the world, but in Italy we have to do much more to affirm this approach.

Lucia Massei is a master artisan: she began her career in 1984 and she started teaching in 1990