The Alchemist

Roman jeweller Fabio Salini talks to Vijetha Rangabashyam about his inspiration that mostly stems from his heart, his love affair with materials of different textures, his creative process and more.

you can’t put a bracket to Fabio Salini’s creations. I was going through pictures of his jewellery for several minutes and I was desperately rummaging for an adjective to describe his work and quite frankly there isn’t one; there are many. His pieces are quirky, elegant, classic yet so modern and more importantly they surprise you, with an unabashed mix and play of materials – there’s leather with diamonds, resin with gemstones, carbon fibre with fire opals, bamboo with brown diamonds and the list goes on. ‘The concept of design is a concept applied to industry. Instead of jewellery design, I’d rather talk about jewellery as an expression of art. I feel that I’m an artist, and like all artists I’m passionate about my work, because I consider it an expression of my taste and my personal vision, and thus an artistic expression,’ quips Fabio when asked about where his passion for jewellery design stems from. ‘There wasn’t one moment when I decided to be a jewellery designer. I’ve always felt it, and I’ve always felt that this would be my path,’ he adds.

For a true artist, imagination has no confines and this world, far and beyond is a canvas. If you look at his silk collar necklace for instance, with silk he manages to borrow from what the sartorial world has to offer and with pearls and diamonds he lends a flavour of luxury. This difference in textural elements is what makes his pieces stand out. ‘The spirit of my label is independent, extremely creative and as original as possible. I use different materials and each of them gives me the chance to explore volumes, colours, moods. Once experimented, these materials make part of my production, each one with its predominantfeatures, or get mixed giving my creativity the chance to be expressed throughout a continuous evolution.’ After obtaining a degree in Gemology at the University of Rome, Fabio worked for many years in Bulgari and Cartier. His penchant for art in the form of jewellery came to the forefront in 1999 when he first launched his collection. In 2004, he opened his atelier on Rome’s Via di Monserrato. Being a Roman, ingeniousness perhaps runs in his blood and you can see smatterings of both Rome and Italy in his creations. ‘Italy has always been a cradle of art, therefore beauty. So we, the artists, in order to not be redundant, are pushed to express ourselves in a better way, to go further, looking for excellence. There are thousands of Italian references in my work, because Italy is the cradle of culture and a continuous source of inspiration, from art, to nature, to food, to colours, to the sensibilities and DNA of the Italian people, a population that is certainly unique in terms of emotion as well.’

Most creative people don’t play by the rules and I suppose that is what makes them different. And Fabio’s creative process is not black and white, and doesn’t have a definitive starting and finishing point.

‘No rule is the rule of my creative process. My jewellery can start from the colour or the shape of a gem such as from a pure and subtle concept that I want to express through the beauty of a perfect craftsmanship, the contrast of precious and rough materials, the sumptuosity of a faceted gem or the simplicity of a hard stone.’ And this is evident in his pieces as well – how do you envisage a structural workflow of something as alluring as the pair of coral handcuffs with Ombré detailing? It is meticulous for sure, but it is nearly impossible to define the method to his creative madness. And just like his designs that are so diverse, the wearer of his pieces has to be someone who doesn’t succumb to linear thinking. ‘Since I create, through the different materials I use, many different styles of jewellery (from romantic to rock, from sophisticated to bold) the sensibilities of the wearer of my jewellery are many and different, but for sure they are always well defined and never obvious.’

The shining texture of Stingray along with voluptuous gemstones provides the onlooker with a sensory explosion. ‘Every material has been important for me because it’s led me to develop my know-how and move on to the next material, giving me the opportunity to experiment not only with the intrinsic characteristics of the material in terms of working techniques, but also in terms of the creation of volumes, colours, sensations, etc.’ Speaking of the up and coming trends in jewellery, Fabio says, ‘ I find that at the moment the world of jewellery is quite flat, that is, lacking in great creative expression, and it’s absolutely the result of marketing operations that lead us to understand that economic objectives are more important than creative ones.’ Spoken like a true artist, indeed.