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MILAN DESIGN WEEK . FUORI SALONE 2018

CAPPELLINI'S SUPERLOFT AT SUPERSTUDIO 

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R O S S O centerpiece

ROSSO is the product of a collaboration between Orsoni - Venetian luxury mosaic producer, Cappellini, and Térence Coton from the Prisma Project, group of designers supported by the Istituto Marangoni.

 

R O S S O

ROSSO is a centerpiece designed by Térence Coton to display fruits, vegetables and decorations. The choice of three ‘reds’ comes from a visit of the ‘Library of colours of Orsoni’ where all colours are displayed in great shelves and change gradually tone throughout the day, slowly revealing their unique complexities. Inspired by the combination of hand-cut glass and the ever changing quality or red colours - the most difficult ones to produce, the design vibrates to reveal the extreme quality of Orsoni’s glass as well as the historic know how of Orsoni’s craftsmen. Each red has been set on the structure as a gem, and gives, with a variation in inclination and horary sense, a movement to the facets and a spectacular interpretation of Orsoni’s ‘true Gem of Venice’.

 

About the making:

The mosaics are produced, hand-cut and arranged by Master Craftsmen in Venice, by Orsoni, last remaining manufacturer of its kind to produce glass mosaics on the City of Water. The structure is realized in painted steel by Officine Zanitoni near Milan.

Red Orsoni

"The reds' technician is not born yet" used to say Angelo Orsoni. It is one of the most often repeated saying in the furnace up until today, and a testimony of the difficulty to realize such colour.

Pompeian red was obtained by extraction of pigments from millions of molluscs.

Roman and then Byzantine first red mosaics were created from copper and iron oxides mixed to obtain a red glass lacquer, or ‘rosso lacca’.

In Murano, transparent ruby colour was made by adding pure gold to arsenic and kept secret by the ‘Serenissima’. Ruby glass is today used to produce skin tone enamels or ‘smalti’.

 

In the 1800s, Germany discovered the use of selenium oxide with cadmium oxide and created the most vivid reds that we know today. Immediately after, Angelo Orsoni started experimenting and in 1889 finally managed to develop different reds. Angelo then continued his experimentation up to the current reds. He became the first to supply commissioned enamels and changed the market by creating a need for samples. This turning point was followed by his successors who stopped producing random colours and provided customers with the colours they needed.

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