Mentorship: Sergio Antonini

THE MENTOR: SERGIO ANTONINI 

«Marco Di Biagio is a Roman designer that I met about three years ago during a course at Milan Polytechnic. I had been invited to speak about jewelry design by Alba Cappellieri, the director of the Master in Fashion Accessory Design. I went through the Antonini jewelry-making sequence, from the idea to prototyping to the final product. I also had to take a look at the course students’ work and Marco’s project was extremely interesting, especially the OMG (Oh My God) wedding band. It is a ring with a struc- ture mounted on tiny spheres supporting the upper part so that it rotates. It is a simple and essential cylinder but its structure is ingenious.» 

THE TALENT: MARCO DI BIAGIO 
«Design encases all my passions: architecture, antiques, jew- elry history. Everything about me can be found in all of my creations. All the influences on which my inspiration is based. My aim as a designer is to create items that respond to functionality factors. To do so, I draw on my technical skills as a gemologist and my creativity. I look for very simple geometric shapes: this simplicity of the shape gives me a sense of security because it is something I know and am able manage. My first instinct it not to push myself beyond the things that I don’t know. I find history a perfect start- ing point. My creativity always begins from the basic mechanism of the jewel: what I want to do is make something from an everyday item that is not so innovative in shape but more so in its use. I like the idea of introducing things of daily use that we only normally take practical and aesthetic advantage of, into the austere and clas- sic jewelry world.»