HOW YOUR CAMEO WAS
MADE?
First we must travel to Torre del
Greco, Italy. Nestled between the foot of Mount Vesuvio and the
Mediterranean Sea lies the capital city of coral and cameos, overlooking the bay
of Naples. The population of this Italian community has grown to more than
100,000 -- no fewer than 5,000 participate in the development of cameos and
coral designs.
Exquisite cameos and workings in
coral and gold leave this quiet community daily and travel around the globe.
Vesuvius's lava fields prevented the natives from working the land. Fortunately
the Torresi waters were filled with coral forest and reefs. They not only
engaged in the traditional occupations of sailing and shipbuilding, but also in
coral and
shell diving. There is easy access
to three great natural resources utilized for cameo carving: lava, coral and
conch shells. Cameos made from these materials became very popular all around
the world in the years following the 15th century.
The creative process for the cameo
begins in the seas where the shell divers appropriately select specimens from
90 to 100 feet below the water's surface. The
divers' harvest journeys to the shops of craftsmen in Torre del Greco where the
artist painstakingly searches for sea shells free of flaws and cracks. A new
dimension of artistic skill and aesthetic appeal was added to cameo carving when
it was discovered that many stones - and later, shells - were made of different
colored layers. This allowed the artist to create a striking contrast between
the raised (relief) layer and the flat (background) layer. Although modern
machinery now assists in the initial stages of the process, the intricate
details are still carved by hand.
The individual piece to engrave is
mounted with wax on a wooden stick. After having sketched a picture of what he
intends to carve, the engraving begins using steel burins. The goldsmith work is
strictly hand-made and the techniques used are part of the most remarkable
Neapolitan and Italian artistic tradition. Gold frames, like cameos themselves,
are created in all shapes and sizes, the most popular being the oval. A gold
metal ribbon (bezel or gallery wire) is wrapped around the perimeter and folded
over the edge of each single cameo. In this fashion no two can be exactly alike
in their curvature, thickness and contour. The bezel is then surrounded by the
most decorative part of the frame:
gold-moldings, twisted ribbons,
double wire braids, mixed ropes, strings of pearls, hallow-cane, etc., and
embellished with filigree patterns, or diamond settings.
Every single Cameo has a history in
itself--an exemplary story of devotion and sacrifices of a long and hard
apprenticeship. It's a rigorous selection where fantasy, creativity and
knowledge of the drawing are essential to give life to cameos narrated in only 2
mm of thickness.
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