The story of the creation of my jewels and of Ziio brand is certainly not linear or traditional, impossible to summarize in a few words, or to recall at an exact moment.
It was a journey to discover the world, a series of experiences that I have always wanted to capture in my creations and share, therefore is not easy to look at a precise moment to define it.
The journey began – literally – in the early 80s when, after finishing my studies, I decided to go and explore the world. There was no real path or precise final destination in my mind, I just wanted to leave and discover as much as possible.
“But the true voyagers are only those who leave
Just to be leaving; hearts light, like balloons,
They never turn aside from their fatality
And without knowing why they always say: “Let’s go!” Charles Baudelaire
Starting from the South of France, after a short layover in Rome, I reached Cairo, Egypt. It was not a trip intended to have a deadline, so I could take some time, visit the Egyptian museums, the pyramids of Giza, the desert.
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Nile river
There, walking down a street, I saw the name “Ziio” written on a sign, which somehow stayed stuck in my mind. I never knew what it meant and that day I went on my way, already a bit closer to my destiny.
The inspiration
During the following month I went along the course of the Nile southwards, spending a month in Luxor, living near the Colossi of Memnone, the “gate” to the Valley of the Temples, then further down towards Assuan; from there, with my mind already inspired by the beautiful artifacts seen during my initiatory journey, I found pearls of Egyptian blue Faïence (or Faenza), a deep blue material, which I had already seen in many ancient jewels in Egyptian museums.
These gave me the inspiration that at the time pushed me to create bracelets with the main technique that I still use today for my creations, combining rows of beads and baguettes with a method that we can find in artifacts dated back to 2600 BC.
With time and experience, I improved the Egyptian technique, to give my jewelry continuity of movement and harmony to the shapes, as in the Mamba line, where the wire connecting the beads, several meters long, is never broken, but gently bent to compose sinuous curves, similar to those of the snake.
This simple inspiration put the basis of the design of my jewelry and has accompanied me ever since.
