Located right in the characteristic town centre, the Bottega Orafa Manganoni is one of the few historic workshops still remaining in Desenzano, testifying to an art handed down from father to son: in fact, two out of three, Monica and Simone, followed in the footsteps of their father Giorgio.
Later, in 2021, brother and sister decided to separate, taking different paths; today Monica continues exactly the same activity as her father, with the same skill and a personal touch that makes her jewellery true works of craftsmanship. Exclusive jewels with soft lines in various alloys, embellished with raw stones in intense and vibrant colours. Each object tells a story and it is impossible not to be seduced by what it evokes.
Monica greets us smilingly at the workshop reception and, climbing the stairs, we arrive in daddy Giorgio's historic workshop, where Monica as a child, sitting next to him and watching him with attention and admiration, learnt the art of goldsmithing.
Thanks for welcoming us and even more for doing it here, in your kingdom: an intimate place full of memories, objects, photographs.
"Yes, memories of travels, especially of my father, and family photos. This is the workbench: everything has been created here since the beginning. How many hours I have been sitting next to my father, watching his hands work materials and create shapes. They were moving with elegance and skill, enchanting my eyes. Today, looking at my hands I see my father's hands, the same gestures and shape ... this work can really forge, almost consume your hands."
Like all handicrafts, yours is a demanding activity, but one that has certainly brought you a great deal of satisfaction. How did this activity come about? What is the incipit or the occasion that started it all?
"Dad was born in '38 in France to emigrant parents who returned to Italy just before the war. His childhood is similar to that of many other children of that period: at the age of 5-6 he was already working as a shepherd boy in Valcamonica, far from his family, and it was there, under the stars and among the sheep, that he learnt to read and write. Later he worked at other jobs, all of them very tiring, standing for many hours a day. Until his mother found him a job as a helper at a goldsmith in Cremona; the first thing my father asked during the meeting with the goldsmith was whether he could really work sitting! (laughs)... He couldn't believe it: finally after so many tiring jobs far from home.
A year later, however, the workshop in Cremona closed, and my father went to Brescia to another workshop where he stayed for a few years. And this work fascinated him so much that in 1961 he decided to set up on his own, initially setting up a workshop-room in the house and then opening the workshop in the centre of Desenzano."
For many years your workshop has been located in a side street, parallel to the main central one and, for this reason, did not enjoy much visibility.
Even social media didn't exist in those days, but you have always had a lot of work. Which meant that customers knew where your shop was and were coming to see you.
"Ours was the only one of its kind in the area and my father initially worked a lot. Then it must be said that in order to leave in someone else's hands the fate of a jewel that belongs to you, precious not only for its economic value but also for its emotional value, you must have trust and esteem in the person to whom you give it. And my father had customers who trusted him completely, customers who, over the years, by word of mouth, created an important network of new clients.
As the years went by, dynamics of visibility changed, other realities like ours were born, and in parallel the market for computer-generated jewellery and costume jewellery developed, and all these things changed the scenario.
So in 2010 I decided to move to this workshop, in Via Sant'Angela Merici, an area with a lot of traffic, so as to be more visible, and this helped me a lot, also because for many years I decided not to invest in advertising on social media, remaining always and in any case tied to word of mouth from satisfied customers. Now a day I have a website and a page on social media, which I don't follow personally because I wouldn't know where to start (laughs).. I can say that in a way I was almost forced to do it: in times like these you can't not at least have an online presence. And mine is a showcase for my creations, nothing more, where my customers, especially the foreign ones, who don't live here, can follow my production."
What does your work mainly consist of? Is it custom-made, commissioned creations, repairs... and how has your clientele changed over the years?
"My work mainly consists of repairing or restoring a piece of jewellery as well as realizing a new object. That is why my clientele has always been very varied, both socially and in terms of requests: there are customers who commission a piece of jewellery for an occasion or for someone, for example the husband who wants to give his wife a present, or the granddaughter who wants to recover an object from her grandmother by adapting it to her style. In this respect, things have not changed over the years.
Since we moved to this shop, the location and the increased traffic have also brought many foreigners, especially those who have a second home here on the lake: some of them have been my regular customers for years, they bring me objects to repair, jewellery to give a second life to, or commission me for new projects.
But also many foreigners who regularly come on holiday to Lake Garda have become my customers and come to see me year after year, asking me to repair one of their family objects or to make a new creation for them... and this only happens because they love my style and want one of my creations.
Artisans create unique pieces with a personal touch that characterises their work and, like any art form, you have to like it.
If you like a certain brushstroke, a certain style, then you will definitely come back."
How often has it happened to you to overturn and change an object by making repairs or recovering?
"Actually, it usually happens quite often: from a brooch that you no longer wear to a pendant, from a bracelet transformed into a ring but keeping the same motif, these are all possible changes. It's like readjusting a dress, which may have belonged to your grandmother and which you want to adapt to you, and the tailor reinterprets the dress to suit your style, applying a pocket to make it special, etc. This is the Italian craftsmanship, like that of shoemakers, tailors ... and goldsmiths."
So what is the biggest difference between the creations of an artisan goldsmith and those found in jewellery shops today?
"There are very few goldsmiths left in Italy, and I think also in the rest of the world, because young people who come out of school learn how to programme and they use computers to create 3D objects, but they are not able to repair, and that's a problem because repair is also the necessary step to arrive at creation: you learn the manual skill needed to work the materials, you learn to know them, to understand how they react to heat, to the flame of the soldering machine, you learn how much force to use, etc... We work all materials by hand, step by step.
Working materials by hand to create an object gives you more freedom to express yourself and makes the object unique. I remember that in the beginning, in order to gain manual dexterity, I had been working for many hours at the rolling mill creating chains. I tried to be as precise as possible with the links and my father would tell me 'don't be so precise, ours is a craft and its beauty also lies in the imperfections of the object, due precisely to manual skill'.
Today's jewellery is often designed to be disposable, it is not made to last a lifetime. This is a totally different concept from the creation of a workshop goldsmith: the object I create is made to last a lifetime, to be handed down, and consequently acquires even greater value over time. "
Which are the best elements, according to your experience and sensitivity, that can help enhance the uniqueness of the piece of jewel that you are going to create or change for a specific customer?
"Creating an object and trying to understand what a customer might like requires a bit of psychology basis. When a customer comes to me with a request, I let him talk a lot to understand what his idea is and try to draw it on a piece of paper.... or I try to understand who the object is intended for, what kind of person she/ he is, what she/he does, what passions she/ he has, in order to personalize it as much as possible. But it can also happen that they don't like the object. One thing I care a lot about is remaking the object if the customer doesn't like it. "
What was your father inspired by and what are you inspired by when restoring or creating from scratch a piece of jewel?
"My father was mainly inspired by nature, its shapes and colours, as well as by trips to the Orient, one of his favourite destinations, because he was lucky enough to travel a lot. I followed his brushstrokes and did my own hammering. I fell in love with his work and continue to do so, while maintaining the inspiration he gave me. I don't follow fashions or trends, I just propose my own ideas."
Looking at your showcase, I noticed that the materials you use have special characteristics. What criteria do you base your choice on?
"I prefer semi precious stones, which I like particularly for the variety of nuances. They are in the showcase and in most of my creations as well.
Carnelian agate, green agate, opal... Especially I like semi-precious stones because you can find all color tones of nature. I don't use classic workmanship, that of the blue sapphire or the diamond ring, for example... If customers ask me, I can do it of course, but for my style outside of fashion and classicism, I generally prefer to use semi-precious stones."
Which events and/or situations marked a turning point in your life and, incidentally professionally, in your art?
"One of the reasons why I fell in love with this job is definitely the fact that I could work side by side with my father throughout his life.
When Dad passed away, I realised how much I loved this work. The fact that I really found myself alone with no longer that shoulder for me, that right word at the right time, that celebration when the job was done and we were happy with it... made me realise how deep my love for this art was and so I took a step forward.
The beautiful and fascinating thing is that you never stop learning because in any case each project is new and has its own complexities and peculiarities. Besides creativity, that allows you to think about how you want the object and imagine it, there is production, after the study of possible concrete realizations, thanks to manual skills the idea becomes a real object. Moreover there is also an engineering phase. So you never get bored.
I would like to be able to teach someone, to find a boy or a girl and raise them as I grew up, alongside my father. However, I don't know whether I would ever be able to teach. In my case it was so simple, I breathed art from an early age... And the love for my father also nurtured the love for this work. Yes, I think love is the key to everything, because no art would survive without love.
I can call myself a child of art. "
