I am Milena L’Annunziata, designer and metal artisan.
I have a degree in architecture but I have always felt the need to work with my hands. I define myself as a designer who applies craftsmanship techniques to a passion for metals and I love to create with everything that can be reworked with hands.
My atelier is located near the church of Sant'Agostino, in the upper part of the Sasso Barisano, right inside an underground room inhabited by a family from Matera until the 1970s.
I started working metal already in my university years, but when I returned to Matera after graduation and opened the architecture studio, I realized that drawing and planning were not enough for me.
I needed to express my creativity also through my hands and so I picked up the hammer again, built a work table and recovered my father's tools to start modeling metal.
I have been doing this job for twenty years now, learning step by step, experimenting and finding my own style and my way of creating and using the tools.
My first works were jewelry, then I moved to the big dimension creating frames, sculptures and very important pieces, but even that wasn't enough for me anymore.
When I work I face industrial plates of aluminum, brass and copper and during the processing a dialogue with the material gradually grows. The shape comes by itself, as I hit with the hammer the material begins to bend and the work that comes out is the result of this powerful interaction. That's why at a certain point I really felt the need to wear and give life to my creations, these sculptural jewels, halfway between the armor and the ritual collar.