Giorgio Romani

My craft is most involved in woodturning and sculpture.

Q&A

What craft do you work with?

My craft is most involved in woodturning and sculpture. I started sculpture on marble during my academic studies but later between 2004 and 2005 I discovered wood was the perfect material to express myself. Unlike stone wood was a living organism and I realised it would have take me years to understand it. Woodturning has always been for me a way to research through this beautiful living material, I have been working wood since 2005 full time. My favourite techniques on the lathe is hollowing out.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

It could sound weird but most of my inspiration comes from literature and music. My work is then driven by a metaphysical component, I believe that during the processing phases what I feel directly affects the material, so shapes and surfaces are never improvised but always thought and felt. I also find a lot of inspiration during my hiking and climbing adventures surrounded by the grandness of woods and mountains. I love to work only with local sourced green wood just because I really need to establish a deep connection with the material itself, taking great care of its growing, the place where it lived, in order to understand how it could react after my hands.

How do you start your creative process?

I always start my process from sourcing the material in its own environment , I mean where the tree lives or has lived. I work directly from the main log, selecting parts and cutting them in rough shapes following what I have previously designed for them. I then put those blanks on the lathe and turn them to a finished form. The phase I like the best is when the piece is detached from the lathe and put aside to air drying, because in this part of the process I can handle for the first time what I had only in mind, it is like a birth, and above all the wood now it is light as it was not before.
The very difficult part of the whole process is time and space. Working with a living material means I have to take care of many variables such as weather, season, airflow, water content, speed and precision. Sometimes I feel very anxious when I am at work. Because I always feel like to be losing what I am working on. And unfortunately sometimes it happened.

How would you best describe your workspace and what tools could you not do without?

My current workspace was set up between the walls of an ancient stable. I am in love with ruins and ancient spaces at all. I mostly work with few tools, I do not like confusion around when I am at work, so this leads me to use as few tools as possible. The lathe anyway is a fundamental part of my entire work, I could not live without. The hand tool I love most is the gouge, in any of its forms.

Are there new techniques you would like to try?

I really do not know how to answer this question, but I am open to learn any new techniques I do not know, I like to learn from the experience of others so as I like to share mine.

What have you learnt that you would like to share with fellow crafters?

In my experience I learnt that wood needs care and respect, and thanks to this I have learned to have greater care and respect for myself and for others every day.

What professional dream do you have?

I do not have many dreams left in my drawer, I am living and building mine every day, working with my favourite material, trying to learn and live it the best as I can. Wood for me is a true way of life.