Incalmi is an Italian company that carries out research, design and product development for important names in the world of luxury, design and architecture, with the aim of creating objects that are unique in the world in terms of inspiration, creativity and workmanship.
Incalmi is based in Venice, the historic cradle of Italian craftsmanship. Specialising in the art of glass, since 2015 the company has dedicated itself to the search for excellence in the most diverse fields of Italian know-how. To their craft, Incalmi combines a style that feeds on the highest expressions of human creativity – art, architecture, design, decorative arts, fashion.
Renowned brands and architects operating on an international level find in Incalmi an educated and concrete partner, capable of translating their idea of style or their project into an exclusive multi-material object, made by the best Italian craftsmen.
Incalmi rediscovers the technique of enamel flux on copper
The Venetian company has opened a workshop for the production of objects decorated with the technique of fire enamelling on copper objects, a decorative technique made great by masters such as Ettore Sottsass and Gio Ponti.
The technique of fire enamelling on copper is as simple to describe as it is complex to implement. It consists of subjecting a copper object covered with glass powder to a high-temperature kiln firing (over 850°) to make it acquire unexpected colours and brilliance. The complexity lies in the unpredictability of the result, due both to the use of fire – unpredictable by nature – and to the fact that the knowledge of this technique in the field of object making has been almost completely lost, kept alive only by a few enthusiasts.
In the production of enamelled copper objects, progress is made by empirical trial and error, improvisation and a few surprises. Empirical evidence that Incalmi has been working on for years, drawing inspiration from both the work of the Italian Paolo De Poli, a Paduan craftsman who collaborated with Gio Ponti in the 1950s, and Jean Goulden, a brilliant French author who conducted research into the enamelling of bronze and silver in the 1930s. It was Goulden who first spoke of the fragility of this ‘rebellious and daunting’ technique, of the need to conquer it step by step, of the thin margin that runs between failure and success.
The revival of this almost obsolete technique has a twofold interest for Incalmi: on the one hand it is a cultural operation that brings back a made-in-Italy know-how of excellence, on the other hand it aims to produce high-end pieces repeatable in size and colour through an industrial process in which the uniqueness is provided by the craftsmanship. It was in fact the partnership between Incalmi and a major player in the world of luxury that led to the first collection of enamelled objects, distributed worldwide in the top range.
That first collection was followed by a number of objects presented under the Incalmi brand, then the Play with fire project, realised together with designers Giorgia Zanellato and Daniele Bortotto and presented at the Milan Design Week and at EDIT Napoli, the trade fair dedicated to editorial design and design authors.
