Materia – Lela Campitelli

I was born in Potenza and moved to Matera from L'Aquila where I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since childhood I have had a passion for drawing and art. In 98 with my partner Michele Ascoli we founded a workshop called Materia in Matera. We put together systems related to the goldsmithing tradition with forms and languages drawn from other fields such as painting, sculpture and illustration. Everything stems from a choice of sustainable living as well as a passion for creative and manual activity, so the goal is not only to create handcrafted products but through these, to give reality to an imaginary world of which the objects are an expression. The business began as goldsmithing and metalworking, but integrates the work of wood carving and sculpture, in compositions with reclaimed woods and objects. After having done the renovation of the premises sub-concessionally entrusted by the Municipality of Matera, we moved the business to its current location in the Sassi of Matera and, having found there a characteristic hypogeum room, turned it into a gallery for the periodic display of jewelry and other research crafts.I had the good fortune to start my business when there were no social media, so artistic contaminations, sources of inspiration required a much more experimental approach of study and adaptation to one's abilities than today. Thus I developed a more autonomous, less conditioned design, condensed into a certain "recognizability of style" that others report about my creations. I am careful and meticulous with respect to the creative process, which for me becomes a ritual, I love the details and everything that reveals the steps and I find this more important than the formal result. I think in these aspects lies the particularity of my method.

Q&A

What craft do you work with?

I started making jewelry in 1995 and learned metalworking techniques from my partner Michele Ascoli, who in turn learned goldsmithing from his brother Nicola. I have always had a passion for ancient cultures and ancient and ethnic jewelry, however, I was not oriented toward goldsmithing as a profession, although, even before practicing it, I was designing jewelry for my partner. Almost immediately, after my first experiences, it became my activity of choice and helped me cultivate patience and discipline. When I started, the thing that involved me the most was soldering; now I have no favorite techniques because all techniques form a set of steps that are fundamental to the result of a piece of jewelry-I am attentive rather to the harmony of the process.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

This work gave me the opportunity to materialize forms and images that I had in my mind.
I then discovered over time the more sensitive values of a piece of jewelry: in fact, I consider it not just an ornament but the external projection of something inner. I try to offer in an object a personal idea of the beauty of ornament in which the object is a medium and establishes a relationship with the person wearing it, just as the material created a relationship with me as I shape it. I work primarily with silver, but I appreciate the characteristics of brass and copper as well as the quintessential precious metal, gold. I associate these metals with semi-precious stones, gemstones of irregular cuts, common stones, wood, terracotta, cloth and any other material that lends itself to telling a small story in jewelry. Basically in fact, my jewelry is born from poetic inspiration.

How do you start your creative process?

There are many ways to start the creative process. I work both on commission and on personal inspiration. In the two cases the creative process starts differently because in the first case I am bound to a request and start from a project. But in my creative work, for my ideas, inspiration also starts by working…for example, from a mistake in the course of a work, or from a shape seen in nature or from a particular impression inspired by a dream or reading. The difficult part in both cases is being able to render, through the characteristics of the materials, the idea of the project I have in mind. It is exciting when the work, slowly becoming a meditation, reveals on the one hand the starting idea on the other hand unexpected effects that complement that idea.

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

My workspace must be a dimensional portal. I must surround myself with objects that, like presences, create a kind of enchanted world. The basic tools that I cannot do without are: paper and pencil, a goldsmith’s bench, a drill, the cutting tools such as fretwork saws the wire cutters and shears, chisel hammers,funnels or stozzi, burins and engraving tools, files and rasps, wire and plate reduction machinery, and of course a flame.

Are there new techniques you would like to try?

There are so many techniques that I would like to experiment with, perhaps putting lost-wax investment casting into practice, but also other craft and artistic techniques to deepen my knowledge of other materials and other expressive languages.

What have you learnt or the best advice you have received that you would like to share with fellow crafters?

What I have learned in the course of my experience and what has probably characterized my work is the confrontation with other realities is with other artists and artisans. I think the thing that enriches this kind of work is really the openness to other people’s experience.

What other types of craft do you dream of collaborating with?

I would like to continue woodworking, I really like materials such as fabric and paper, and I would like to incorporate them into my business.

What professional dream do you have?

I would like to be able to set up a workshop school and pass on my knowledge.