Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
#313: Valentina Caprini (Jewelry Artist) (pt. 1 of 2)
Today we released part one of our interview with Valentina Caprini. She’s a jewelry designer, artist and teacher based in Florence, Italy. She comes from a long line of tailors and seamstresses, and studied at the Alchimia Contemporary Jewellery School in Florence.
Valentina founded Linfa Studio Gallery in 2019 and has given lectures on jewelry-making around the world. Her designs incorporate the ancient filigree technique of weaving metal threads, into what she describes as “wearable art.”
If you are looking for inspiration in building your arts studio, you won't want to miss Valentina's interview! https://www.valentinacaprini.com/ and https://www.linfastudiogallery.com/
Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heiss and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. I'm Andy Heiss and.
Nick Petrella:I'm Nick Petrella. Valentina Caprini is on the podcast today. She's a jewelry designer, artist and teacher based in Florence, Italy. She comes from a long line of tailors and seamstresses and studied at the Alchemia Contemporary Jewelry School in Florence. Valentina founded Linfa Studio Gallery in 2021, and she has given lectures on jewelry making around the world. Her designs incorporate the ancient filigree technique of weaving metal threads into what she describes as wearable art. We'll have all of Valentina's websites in the show notes so you can learn more about her and see her beautiful jewelry. Quick shout out to my student, Nadia, who helped arrange this interview. Thanks so much for being with us, Valentina.
Valentina Caprini:Thank you for having me.
Nick Petrella:How did someone with degrees in communication and semiotics decide to become a jewelry maker?
Valentina Caprini:Yes, good question. Sometimes I ask that question to myself as well. Well, so well. Um, when I was studied at university, uh, I already was interested in contemporary jewelry. In fact, my thesis was about the relation between semiotics and, yeah, contemporary jewelry. So I was studying like ice jewelry or jewelry that it was going really against the classical idea of what everybody has about jewelry. And after that, after my degree, I've been to London to try to learn English for a year and there I attended just like a short course about jewelry making, and for me it was the first time that I could get into a jewelry lab. So I used fire, I was hammering and I completely fell in love with this and I thought that I really wanted to do this every day of my life. So then I decided to come back to Italy and to go to Florence to attend a junior school. And here I am.
Nick Petrella:Great, and your English is fantastic, by the way.
Valentina Caprini:Oh, thank you. That's good to hear at the beginning of the interview.
Andy Heise:So, as you were starting your business um in in Florence, correct?
Valentina Caprini:Yes.
Andy Heise:Okay, so as you were starting the business, uh, and starting to sell, sell your work, how did you balance sort of the creative side of of creating that jewelry with the running a business right, Because making jewelry is different than starting a business selling jewelry.
Valentina Caprini:Absolutely different, and the first thing that come up in my mind is that you have to be multitasking, but with that I mean that you really have to do a lot of things at the same time.
Valentina Caprini:So you have to be a photographer, you know like an expert about communication, and then you have to do your visit cards, postcards, and answer to the emails and then answer to real people, the customers that are coming, and then I'm teaching, I'm teaching here, I'm teaching like outside, and then what I do, I do demonstrations, I do repairs, I do really whatever somebody can think about, and so it's like I would say that is our ongoing balance. And so it's like I would say that is our ongoing balance. And I don't have like a magic formula, unfortunately, you know, but really what I can say is that I'm always trying to really be real in my design, to really always make something that I think that is good, that is nice, that has like a high quality manufacturing Also, because is that what is working at the end? If you want to look at the business side, right, because I my career, I did like many times things that I didn't really like, that I was not sure about and they didn't really like that. I was not sure about.
Andy Heise:Yeah, right.
Valentina Caprini:And they didn't sell. So it's like a double advantage right To really like, be true with yourself and really make something that you like and that is going to work, also from the business side. Yeah.
Nick Petrella:So trust your gut. Yes, that's what we would say over here Always.
Valentina Caprini:Also for the business, because it's not something different yeah.
Andy Heise:And so do you have anyone that helps you with, maybe, some of the business side of things, whether it's record keeping, bookkeeping, all of that, all the administrative type of tasks or do you do all of that yourself as well?
Valentina Caprini:At the moment, I'm doing everything by myself.
Andy Heise:Yes.
Valentina Caprini:Sometimes I have some students and we did exchange, so I do teach them and then they help me with some of the most practical things you know? Yeah, but I have to say that because now I opened my studio since three years Right. But because now I opened my studio since three years Right, because the business is growing, I definitely need some help.
Andy Heise:Sure.
Valentina Caprini:Yeah, yeah, but for now, yeah, I'm doing everything by myself, also because it's so personal in a way.
Nick Petrella:Yeah.
Valentina Caprini:That it's kind of difficult for me to give a part of it to somebody else To let it go.
Nick Petrella:Yes, I have a question that I was going to ask later, but I'll bring it up now. So you look after all your sales channels too.
Valentina Caprini:Yes, but one thing like after that I opened my studio, I shut down a lot of channels and I have to say that I just sell here directly in my studio.
Nick Petrella:Okay.
Valentina Caprini:And if somebody wants they see something on Instagram, for example, I can ship that worldwide.
Nick Petrella:Right.
Valentina Caprini:But I don't have an online shop because it will be too much work. Yeah, yeah, it will be impossible, and I kind of like it because it's like exactly the contrary what everybody's doing right, because they say you, you should open an online shop, and blah, blah, blah. And for me, it's so nice to meet the customers in person that they need really to try and see. You know like they look really closely to the jewelry and I really like it because, also, I make few pieces and my idea is to make even less pieces in the future and because they should be special, they should be really, really full of care from me and full of care also from the customers. So it's an effort, but I think that it's worth it.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, so knowing what you know and all that you're doing and it sounds like it's a variety of different things which position do you think you will fill first to take some things off of your plate so that you can focus more on jewelry making or teaching?
Valentina Caprini:So you mean sorry to understand better that which task I should I'm able to give to somebody else.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, will you hire a bookkeeper? Will you have someone for marketing? Will you hire someone?
Valentina Caprini:like a manager. I will drop like the activity of making the smaller pieces like everyday jewelry, because we need that, you know, for the business. But because I've been studying, like many years now I'm a jeweler since 16 years and I think that I got to a certain level of knowledge that I really would like to translate that into the jewelry techniques and so I really would like to make maybe one piece that takes 20 days right, I don't know that I can really show what I, what I, what I know, what I'm able to make, and so I will drop, maybe you know, the little things like little earrings.
Valentina Caprini:Yeah, because I think that I can give a little bit more. Yeah, yeah, so that but but to.
Andy Heise:But, like you said, the those little pieces are a big part of the business, so you can't completely not do them. So maybe you'll hire an apprentice or somebody else to work in your studio under your brand name Absolutely, yeah, yeah, I mean that absolutely Because also I want to check the quality. Sure, sure Right.
Valentina Caprini:I'm really picky about that, and so I really need to see what this person is doing, how it is making the things. Absolutely yeah, and another thing will be social media.
Andy Heise:Yeah.
Valentina Caprini:But also there I mean, like I tried to, and even if somebody knows me very well, you know they understand my style, they understand my colors, they understand I'm so picky because it's so personal. I mean I'm not selling things that are just products or like I'm reselling things from others. I'm selling really what I'm making in hours. I'm selling really what I'm making in hours. So it's also how you communicate that. It's really important for me and yeah, one day maybe I will find somebody that can translate what I feel. But still, I didn't find. I found, yeah, so let's see.
Nick Petrella:Great. So, Valentina, in the introduction I mentioned the filigree technique you use. And since many of our listeners won't know what that is, could you describe the technique and tell us how you got started in giving classes around the world on that technique?
Valentina Caprini:Sure. So my passion about working with wires and threads that is, about filigree is coming from a feminine tailoring tradition of my grandmothers and mom, and I grew up in the middle of sewing machines and threads and filigree is actually the art of waving metal wires in jewelry making. So when you see filigree jewelry they look like textile but they are made out of metal. So for me it was the perfect technique, the perfect translation on how I could go on with this really strong tailoring tradition of my family but into my jewelry world. And filigree is a really ancient technique and it's so beautiful because you work with these thin wires thin like hair and you wave them with special handmade pliers and then you solder everything with fire. It's very fascinating to see.
Nick Petrella:Also, Is it time? Consuming?
Valentina Caprini:Sorry.
Nick Petrella:Is it time consuming to do that?
Valentina Caprini:Absolutely.
Nick Petrella:That's why I figured yeah.
Valentina Caprini:Absolutely. It's so long to make it super long, but actually you know if you will think that that is something that is not good. I'm actually trying to transform that into something positive Right to transform that into something positive. Right, because the good thing about filigree is that cannot make molds of it, you can't because it's too thin.
Valentina Caprini:so what happens? That you really have to make it by hand. There is no way that you can industrialize the process. So what happens? When you see a filigree piece? It's really made in a certain way.
Valentina Caprini:So I'm thinking, really, that resembles also a general idea that I want to give with my jewelry. So if that piece is going to cost a little bit more than another piece of jewelry that took less time to make, I think that is good, because if you really want it, you're going to buy instead of two pieces, you're going to buy one piece, right, and that is really good, because I think that is a general way of consuming that we should all look at in our society. I know that it's not easy because we are used to have a lot of things like super fast, okay. But if we really slow down as well in our buying things and we just buy yeah, one instead of two, we raise up the quality of our life and also, yeah about what we are wearing. So I don't know, I think that is a positive thing, or at least I'm trying to yeah, see and transform this feature into yeah, into my jewelry world?
Nick Petrella:yes, which metals do you work with gold so?
Valentina Caprini:mostly I work with silver and gold yes, okay because, uh, you know also copper or brass, you can use these two metals. But because it's so time consuming what I'm making, it's not worth it yeah the final product, then if it's in brass and it took the same time to make the same in silver- In silver. You can sell it much more and also it's nicer the quality again, because you know, with brass and copper your skin might become blue or green.
Andy Heise:It's normal.
Valentina Caprini:It's oxidation Instead with silver or gold. It's not harmful for your skin and so, yeah, just using that for these reasons.
Andy Heise:Where do you source your silver and gold thread?
Valentina Caprini:Yes, so I was really careful about that. And you know in Florence because we have a really ancient tradition about bulls meeting here is full of jewelry makers, okay. And so how it's working that when you work with metal, then you have a lot of leftovers that you can collect, and then you can go to certain places and they clean it for you and they remelt it, okay, and they give you back wires or sheets of metal. So, because there are a lot of jewelry makers in florence, these places they keep remelting the scraps and the leftovers. So it's just from there yeah, that makes sense.
Nick Petrella:I was wondering the same thing, andy, and as you were talking, I just looked. Currently, the price of gold per ounce is over $2,700. Yeah, it's one of the highest.
Valentina Caprini:Yeah, when I started 15 years ago, it was well, I say 13 euro. It was like 31 euro per gram or less 33. And now it's 83. Oh, wow, yeah. So unfortunately it's really expensive. But that is, you know, worldwide kind of thing that you cannot control.
Andy Heise:Did that impact what you made and how you made it, or did you just raise your prices accordingly?
Valentina Caprini:I just raised my prices. Yeah, unfortunately.
Andy Heise:What else can you do, yeah?
Valentina Caprini:But you know, gold is so beautiful to work with, it's the best metal, not just because for the color, for the feature, it's really really nice. And so, again, it's like that you buy less, but you buy with quality and with thoughts, you know.
Nick Petrella:And I'm wondering do you, when the price goes down, do you buy more or do you not use enough to make that valuable?
Valentina Caprini:Sorry, when the price of gold is going down.
Nick Petrella:Well, yeah, cause if it, if it, if it dips down, cause you know you can look at the price, do you? Do you try? And time you're buying then, or is it?
Valentina Caprini:Well, unfortunately, usually they say that when the price goes up, it will never go down yeah, yeah at least in many, many, many years yeah so I'm afraid that it's going to be the. Yeah, I'm not. You know, I'm like a small jewelry maker, so also I don't do like mass production and sometimes I also like to remelt old gold. So, yeah, there is no, there is enough gold out there that maybe the people, the people know you don't use, so I can I do also that, so yeah, good so, as nick mentioned, you've taught jewelry making techniques across the globe.
Andy Heise:I'm I'm assuming that's focusing specifically on the filigree technique.
Valentina Caprini:Exactly yes.
Andy Heise:Yeah, so everywhere, from New York to Shanghai, all over the world. How have these international experiences influenced your jewelry making and your strategy for your business?
Valentina Caprini:Right? Well, first of all, I have to say that it was so beautiful to go around the world and see how the other jewelers were working. You know, because when you teach you also learn. Yes, and it was nice to see what were the differences, but also was so nice to see how, at the end, the processes were kind of the same, uh, internationally. So, because you know, working with metal is really archaic, you know, I don't know if it's if it's the right words to say, but I mean that you really need fire hammers and files and yeah, yeah, that's it yeah.
Andy Heise:I think I think archaic was the word. Yeah, ah, yeah is right.
Valentina Caprini:Thank you okay so, um, so that was really beautiful, and but I have to say that all these experiences around the world just taught me that I should be even more close to what I was doing, I should be even more original, I should be even more attached to the tradition, because it's authentic. I learned this technique directly from the artisans of this small town outside Genoa, which is in the northwest part of Italy, and you know, it's just that that is the truth, that is the way how you make things, and the best thing that you can do is just to follow that, yeah, without inventing you know so many things around.
Valentina Caprini:No, just really, um, be authentic and trying to make the things under on the highest quality possible that you can make them. Just just do that and it will be good in that way.
Andy Heise:Yeah, you know, in my limited time that I've spent in Italy, there are those. What you just said sort of encapsulates the experiences that I've had throughout. Italy is a very deep, deep commitment to tradition in the filigree technique, in your in this case and and just a commitment to the highest quality. If it's not the highest quality that you can do, then why are you doing it? And I see that every.
Andy Heise:Everything from you know art, jewelry to the food you know. Think about like um, parmiano-reggiano cheese and balsamic vinegar and prosciutto and things like that. They take time. You can't rush the process. You've been doing it for centuries, you know. Those are just. Those are the main themes that always come to my mind when I think about Italy, and what you just said matches that exactly yes, um, yeah, because I don't know.
Valentina Caprini:Um well, you know, this thing is really good and is exactly as you said, can be really good on one side for italy. Sometimes it has the bad side that we are so slow sure yeah so slow and so like behind in many things.
Valentina Caprini:I have to say um, and we are not so smart, uh, sometimes, to really um, to give the right value, um, on the tradition and the richness that we have in the knowledge of, of art. Yes, so on one side is really good, you can really see that there is a lot of expertise. On the other side, sometimes that is is taking us like behind it holds you back.
Andy Heise:Yeah, a little bit yeah yeah, exactly, yes, yeah, burden of knowledge, yeah, yeah, but you still innovate.
Nick Petrella:Because I was reading on your site you combine experimental and traditional techniques to your designs, right. So even though you may have, as you called it, an archaic technique, that's artisan and old world, you can still come up with different ways to innovate. And so I'm wondering have you ever because you mentioned you'd use 3D printing yes, have you ever used AI in some way to come up with designs?
Valentina Caprini:No, and this is a really hot subject say because you know, with this AA they are saying that, oh, nobody will paint or will write anymore because they will be much better than us.
Valentina Caprini:And I have to disagree with that right, because I use 3d printing. That is something really uh big as well in the jewelry industry. Because what happens? That with 3d printing you can make these beautiful structures that you can print out in wax or resin and then you can cast in metal. Okay, so what happens? The jewelry makers? They work on the computer and then ah, here it is and the ring is ready-made. So I think that that is good until you put your handmade touch in it. Because if you just print out like a ring out of a machine, it lacks about the soul, it like because it wasn't worked with the fire, for example, that really give like a molecular composition to the metal that is different from this other product. Okay, so I use 3D printing to take advantage of the new possibilities. But after that was casted in silver, for example, or gold. I was working on that with the fire.
Nick Petrella:Right.
Valentina Caprini:And I was putting the filigree elements, small elements, inside it and I was soldering these elements with fire. So in this way you combine the old and the contemporary, but in a way that they take advantage on each other. And this is one thing to use technology. But if I was asked to the new intelligence to design something for me, I will just change job and yeah.
Nick Petrella:And my idea was just coming up with different ideas, because there are generators, you can come up with names of businesses, for instance, and so I'm just wondering if you, now you have your own method, you have your own designs, but if and there's debate of whether this thing called writer's block, but if you're looking of thinking outside the box, would that prompt you in the designs in the internal right, that and that's. That's what the, the uh, that's how the question originated right, I don't know I'm.
Valentina Caprini:I think that in this sense, I'm so old-fashioned that I would say no just because I feel that, and then I have so many ideas that I don't think that this lifetime will be enough for me to make all of them seriously, I don't need to ask for more?
Andy Heise:do you sketch your ideas first and then no?
Valentina Caprini:actually I don't know how to draw, okay, yeah seriously, I'm not the kid and this is something that sounds weird, you know, because when for a designer.
Valentina Caprini:But uh, what they really teach me in school was because it was a contemporary jewelry school is that we are not like architects, that you, or like classical jewelry, that you start and you say, oh, I want a ring with these measurements, with this, and that. No, we start directly from with the metal and we experiment and then eventually you find like an idea. This is a way. Then there are like many other creative ways in which you can get to an idea. But yeah, I don't know how to draw, I just go straight yeah, no, that's yeah to the material that's great.
Andy Heise:Yeah, valentina, your work's been featured in an article in the New York Times and other major publications. How's that media exposure? Did it impact your business? Did it change anything about your work?
Valentina Caprini:Well, for sure it was a good point on my CV TV, because I've been yet to Brooklyn metal works to teach filigree just right before the COVID started. Yeah, and, and so it was. I was, yeah, in the right place at the right time and that was amazing and for sure it was a really good way to be known. But, like everything, if you don't keep going on advertising or really promoting yourself, I mean there is nobody that is taking care about that or that is really that really cares at the end, when it comes to buy my jewelry or come to me to to learn something, okay, so, yeah, it was a great experience and um, but actually, yeah, it didn't change my life, I have to say yeah, yeah.
Andy Heise:So so seeking out those of articles and publications, that's not really a strategy that you're using in your business. It was, like you said, the right place at the right time.
Valentina Caprini:Yes, exactly, and that's good, but you know it's just for your own maybe. I mean, I'm not like willing to be hired by somebody that has to impress anybody.
Andy Heise:I'm self-employed.
Valentina Caprini:So, at the end of the day, what is really really important is the quality of my work, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's what I think that will pay. I don't know we have this saying in Italian I don't know if it have the same in Italian, I don't know if it's the same in English that at the end of the day, what will pay you is going to be yeah, really yeah the quality and the level of effort that you put and the truth that you put into your, your work.
Andy Heise:Yeah, yes, that's the real reward is feeling satisfied with what you're doing.
Nick Petrella:Yes, and yeah, and it's actually what really makes your business working so now I know you you're doing this all yourself at this point. Right, I know you talk about, maybe, social media. You, you are active on social media and I'm wondering how much time you spend on that and marketing your studio and your art well, not enough is what they tell me.
Valentina Caprini:Oh, you do, you do like a great work, but you don't advertise enough and like okay, yes, this is going to be on my list of things to do, and so, as I was saying before, I I really would love that somebody will do my instagram, my facebook, my everything. But it's so, so personal, even like the way you know, I take the pictures by myself of buying pieces, because, even if it's like a ring, I really want to show you that little detail that took me maybe two hours to make, and so even the photographer, I want to be the photographer. I don't know if I'm like this is going to come be to be too much, but, um, yeah, definitely. Um, advertising is like a way of communication and how you communicate. You communicate what you are, and most of the people will see my pictures, will see my pictures, will see my videos.
Valentina Caprini:They will never actually will come here in my studio. They will never touch the jewelry, they will never meet me in person, you know.
Nick Petrella:So it's so important and like the way in which you bring out yourself and your work in the world that, yeah, I'm doing that by myself yeah, and in a way, that's good because there's nothing between you and the viewer, so you control the message from the design of what you're making all the way, absolutely absolutely, it's like you know.
Valentina Caprini:Also the music, because now with the reels, you know, and the videos, the music.
Valentina Caprini:You always have to put music, even that sometimes they were putting like a song that I hated.
Valentina Caprini:So I I'm, so I I need to to, you know, to choose the music that conveys as well, like what I really want to what I really want to say yeah, so, and so I'm not doing that enough, because to really do a good communication strategy, you should post, uh, every two days, you should do reels, you should do stories and you should do like blogs. Mean, when they told me that I should write a blog, I was like no, I don't even try to think about that. You know, I don't even consider that it's impossible. And so I'm just trying my best and really also getting beyond these rules of communication, because I mean, even if I don't do, if I don't post three times a week in a week, it's okay. I mean I'm not, this is not my job. And again, if really somebody understand what I'm doing and they really want my work, they should do a little bit of effort as well, right, and just contact me or like, look up, I don't want to give everything like perfectly how you should get it.
Nick Petrella:And, to be fair, your customer base is probably going to be more discriminating than someone buying a $3 piece of jewelry Exactly.
Valentina Caprini:Exactly Because, also, that what is your purpose? Right, to be so active on social media. Do you want to sell 100 pieces every day, right? Well, of course I would like to. I would not say no, right. But this is not what I want at the end of the day, it's what I want is to give, like, quality work. So, I don't know, maybe I don't need. I need less selling, but a different kind of no.
Nick Petrella:Yeah.
Valentina Caprini:Yeah.
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