"A journey between light, matter and memory."

I was introduced to the art of goldsmithing thanks to my uncle Carlo Barbato, a master capable of creating timeless jewelry with absolute mastery. Watching him at work was a revelatory moment for me: I understood that creating a piece of jewelry means sculpting light and giving shape to an intuition.

My style is not related to fashions but to something deeper: an atavistic feeling of captivating fluidity of form. A movement that translates into matter, a continuous dialogue between solids and voids and between flowing lights and reacting surfaces.

Each piece of jewelry is born from an intuition. It can be a reflection, the outline of a tree, a sound, the curve of a body or the shape of an animal. There is no preparatory drawing: the jewelry comes to life directly in my hands by shaping the metal freehand, guided by the sensory memory of that inspiration.

I choose crystals and Murano glass based on the light they reflect and the shape they suggest. Each element must inspire movement and direction.

Plating also has a dual function: aesthetic but also structural and protective.

All my production is manual. Each gesture is unrepeatable and each curve is the result of a lived time. I do not pursue absolute precision because it is not part of human nature. Inaccuracy is memory, it is the imprint of an emotion like the brushstroke in a Monet painting that holds the moment.

Venice, my city, is a living example of uniqueness. Its beauty reminds me every day that I, too, want to be unique. Original, elegant and never the same as anyone else. Luxury for me is the opportunity to own something that restores a feeling of harmony, simplicity and inner peace.

It has to do not with intrinsic value but with the value we feel. Sometimes a shell is enough if looking at it activates something inside.

Perhaps the piece I am most attached to is the one I have not yet created. A catch phrase yes, but one that expresses exactly what creativity really is: the constant desire to surpass oneself and to look for a new gesture and a different light.

The moment I love most is when I sit down and start moving my hands following a vision that takes shape.

If I had not become a goldsmith perhaps I would have been a sculptor. But on closer inspection my jewelry is already small sculptures. Maybe I have been a sculptor all my life.

Francesco Barbato