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Inside the studio of Satyrika

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Hello and welcome! My name is Roberta and I’m the factotum at Satyrika, a brand I launched a couple of years ago. My background is theatre, where I’ve been working as an actress, an author and a director, but since cultural life in Italy is getting more and more difficult, simultaneously to the projects of my association, Satyrikon, I decided to start a new occupation where I can express myself and  really make something, with my own hands. And because I’m a real book addicted, I started with book art and other paper creations (matchboxes, paper cuts), ending then with a Jewel Library… So now I’d like to take you on a virtual tour of my studio, which means, you will actually visit me at home.

Let’s start from the beginning: I live in Turin, in the north of Italy, and this is the sight from my living room. This building is the symbol of Turin and it’s called Mole Antonelliana (from architect Antonelli, who designed it), but for me as a neighbour, simply Molly… I really love this building, it has been the main theme of some of my eldest creations, and you will recognize it in many of the photographs I took of my city, too.

While my husband is going to work and my daughter to school, my day starts with a walk through the park with my two companions Gea (the red one) and Sirius (from Sirius Black, of course). They are brother and sister, two years old, and we adopted them from a dog pound in the south of Italy. They love to wrangle over together (especially Gea, she is a real tiger) but, as you see, they can be very quiet and lovely, too.

Before leaving the living room, I want to show you a little corner of it, for two reasons. First, this piece of furniture is part of a recycle-reinvent-reuse project, falling in the new post-category of my blog: metamorphosis. Second, the same furniture is the basis for our Buddhist family shrine, where I get all those little enlightenments that give the right start to my new creations.

Now this special friend in the corridor will lead you into my studio, but before let me introduce it to you. I found this chair beside the waste (I often find a lot of useful and beautiful things that just lay around thrown away, I must have some luck about it) and, well, I liked it, took it home, and so it has become the best background ever for all my little creations, as you can see from my shop (and from some of the next photos, too).

Let’s enter, now. I suggest we proceed simply clockwise: so, here is one of our many bookshelves at home, with the Theatre section, which is also the main source of inspiration for most of my work. I’m a real Shakespeare fan and it simply makes me happy any time I can put a bit of theatre in my works.

Here is my pc corner, collecting a lot of memories together: the ‘column’ holding the stereo is a section of a truss coming from a theatre, the CD-holder works as a pin wall for postcards and pictures of old and/or far friends, and finally here you’ll find one of the eldest pieces that I have at home. The pc-desk, as a matter of fact, is the table of an old Singer sew machine, once belonging to my grand grandma. With a little tweak: just under the pc you’ll find a secret compartment…

 

 

Here you have a view of the whole “crafting side” of my studio, from left to right: my very big and useful drawer unit (a barter with a good friend), my working desk, then other bookshelves with some crafting manuals and with my German books collections (I lived in Vienna for many years, so Vienna is my second city and German a sort of second language…)

Above my drawer unit: shelves, little boxes and drawers I normally use as display stands for my works.

A close up of an old metal ware drawer working as a display for my jewellery. The paper cut building the name Satyrika was made with an old school book (about Iliad).

And in the first drawer of the drawer unit, you’ll find a brother of it, this time holding my jewellery supplies. In the second drawer, yarns, laces and fabrics; in the third one, paper, most of all handmade or Florentine.

Here is my working desk with a part of my Opera collection. I prefer to listen to classical music while I’m working, and Mozart is the best for it (Mozart is actually the best for everything…). The table is from the 50ies and it belonged to my grandparents, I’m very attached to it.

The black & white print upon the table is the wedding gift I got from my husband, a portrait of Diabolik and his “moll” Eva Kant: master thieves and lovers, they are the anti-heroes of a famous Italian comics series created by two sisters, Angela and Luciana Giussani, during the 60ies. About the typewriter, I’ll tell you later…

So here there are my tools, starting from those I use for paper, from book binding to paper cuts. Probably they are the ones I use the most, also because I make every single piece of packaging by myself… Which means sometimes a longer work, but with much more satisfaction.

And here there are my jewellery making tools. The crochet hooks belonged to my grandma, who taught me crocheting and knitting already when I was a child.

From grand grandma sewing machine to grandma crochet hooks, here is my mum’s typewriter , an old Olivetti Lettera32 I’m currently using for some pieces of The Globe Collection of my Jewel Library, where typewritten Shakespeare’s monologues become ready-to-wear.

And so, in conclusion, let’s go on following this feminine thread. Here it’s me…

Here there are some collected pictures of Satyrika’s jewels worn by my beautiful daughter Sophia, the best model ever. To say the truth, she didn’t inherit very much of my manual skills, but I want to believe that I have a little part of her talent. So thanking you for following me into this virtual tour, I’d like to lend you the end of the thread… Here is her first song: Superhero and I - and so good flight!


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