| Legnoart (Pronounced Lay-no-art) is made in the northern town of Omegna, about 50 miles from Milan. Omegna, built around Lake Orta and surrounded by mountains, is a beautiful part of the world and if you should be travelling in the area we would love to show you the factory.
This area has a long history of working with wood and stainless steel and is home to several well-known design-led housewares companies. If you visited the place you would easily see why so many designers find inspiration there.
The businnes is run by Enrico Albertini and is very much a family businnes.
Enrico does the designs himself. He likes products that share form and function. They must be beautiful to look at and perform well to.
Each product must be perfect, true to designer's creation, no matter if is more difficult to produce or takes a little longer. The amount of work necessary to create these items mean they will be out of reach of many people but they are a "must have" for anyone seeking product at the pinnacle of design and manufacturing ability.
When your leisure time is spent sailing in a natural lake it is easy to see why we have a concern for nature and the planet.
We use a lot of wood. Worldwide use of timber has often involved intense felling of forests but the trees are the lungs of the world and vital to the balance of the planet. Reduction of this "green lung" reduces the quality of the very air we breathe!
Our production philosophy sets us the task of leaving our descendents not only the products we have produced, but also the heritage of a better environment in which to live.
Thus all the wood we use comes from planned forestry projects, where a tree is cut only when it has reached its maturity and each tree felled is replaced by another one.
In manufacturing we try to utilize the boards in the best way, repairing small faults instead of resorting to chemical processes that make all the surfaces the same. Our customer recognize that the unique beauty of wood lies also in its small imperfection.
The small amount of waste timber in our factory goes back into the production cycle by means of a bio-mass plant that supplies thermal power - reducing our consumption of gas or oil and pollution they cause.
Our products are processed in an air-conditioned room, to avoid thermal shock to the wood during manufacture.
Each piece is individually processed, allowing the operator freedom in interpreting at his or her best the individual object. All this is done by means of technologically advanced equipment, wich allows the flexibility each article needs.
The finishing is done manually, trying to enhance the unique characteristics of each individual piece. Hand finishing satisfies our moral responsibility for the employee's health and the environment whilst underling the special features of each object produced.
We have changed the finish to an environmentally friendly solution made entirely from vegetable and mineral products including lemon oil, beeswax, soybean oil etc. instead of synthetic and oil based finishes. The solvent we use is based on orange rind oil that does not damage the environment or your family's healt as, unlike chemical products, it does not release toxic substances in the house.
The finish clearly shows the "open pore" characteristics of the wood. Enhancing the appearance of the wood. The pores through which the sap used to flow inside the living tree are clearly visible in the grain of the timber. These "canals" have been elaborated by the tree during each spring throughout its life and they tell us the story of the tree: How long it lived, how fast it grew, what its environment was like and so on.
Our finishing system allows you to "read" the wood and take home a piece of history as well as a work of art.
Our aim is to share the dream with the people of the world, to inspire you to purchase our products for aesthetic as well as pratical reasons.
We like to think that Legnoart items will be handed down from generation to generation. Gently changing form over the centuries as they handled by succeeding members of your family or friends.
Whether it is for an everyday item or a collectors piece Legnoart items, like children laughing on a bad day should bring joy and beauty to practicality.
Thank you. |
