The story of the singing rooster from Deruta and the musical notes.

Artist and friend Romano Ranieri in a recent photo.
(photo credit: Scuola d'Arte Ceramica Romano Ranieri)

In 1953 Romano Ranieri was attending the last year of high school, the fabled “Liceo Classico”.

During the summer of that year Romano entered the famous ceramics factory “G.Grazia” in Deruta as an apprentice. At that time workshops were structured in teams with  team masters and  a department head. Each apprentice had to follow strictly the rules of his master and of the workshop in general. Romano was selected to work in the team of Mr. Olivo Pelli.  

Mr. Olivo Pelli has been one of the greatest artists in Deruta for the ORVIETO rooster pattern. During that summer Olivo gave Romano the order of painting a group of dinner plates in the rooster pattern. “The plates were for a customer in the United States, whose initials were P.V.” – Romano remembers. The plates had to be finished within the day.

Romano started painting the plates and in the late afternoon he was making the last plate. Out of his initiative Romano created something new: next to the open beak of the singing rooster he draw the lines of the pentagram and 4 or 5 music notes without saying anything to his team master.

The plate was fired and after they discovered what Romano had done, even the department head, Mr.Virgilio Spaccini, had something to say and Romano was reproached for his doing something without the approval of his superiors. The plate was discarded and placed among the seconds.

One day the United States agent visited the Grazia factory. He inadvertently noticed the plate with the notes of the pentagram hidden among the seconds. He was ravished, full of interest for something new. The agent liked Romano’s plate so much that since then he only wanted the Orvieto rooster pattern with the notes of the pentagram!  

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Romano Ranieri was already a very promising creative artist! Romano's father had been sending him to the home of ceramics masters in Deruta from a young age every single school summer break.With the passing of time, Romano Ranieri has been improving his talent for painting on ceramics also adding other supports like canvas and wood. He is now among the most important and best artists of the history of Deruta. In 2001 Romano opened a school where he teaches the art of painting. To know more about this artist and his school, visit the Romano Ranieri website.

Note for the reader -
PHOTOS OF ORIGINAL PLATES BY ROMANO RANIERI WITH THE SINGING ROOSTER COMING SOON! A FRIEND OF MINE OWNS THEM AS HE INHERITED THEM FROM HIS GRANDPARENTS BUT IT TAKES FOREVER TO GET THE PHOTOS. I WILL HAVE TO GO AND TAKE THE PHOTOS IN PERSON AND BE BACK TO YOU!

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July 26th: The Borgo of Deruta celebrates the Feast of Saint Anne.

The most familiar image of Saint Anne
in the homes of  Deruta

Every year on July 26^th Deruta celebrates the mother of the Virgin Mary, Saint Anne, in the neighborhood of town known as “Borgo of Deruta” or “Borgo Bello”.

"Borgo" is the name of the lower parts of Medieval villages or towns in Italy, usually the areas along narrow streets, where craftsmen and artists lived. This area was extended to the peasants who lived in the areas around the village itself especially for the use of the Church.

The veneration of Saint Anne (The goddess Ceres in the pagan tradition) originated from the worship of life, fertility, and of harvests. Saint Anne in fact is the Saint Protector of new mothers and new brides. We pray Saint Anne to ask help for fertility.

In Deruta every year on July 26^th they would celebrate Saint Anne with a market selling animals for meat and products of the countryside and by opening the Church in honor of the rural world. The tradition continues nowadays in the Borgo of Deruta by opening the Church of Saint Anne to the public and by inviting craftsmen and merchants with all sorts of products. 

Nowadays the fair/market takes place on a Sunday that precedes or follows the 26th of July if this date is a working day. 

Happy Name-day to all our friends whose name is Anna, Anne, Ann, Hanna, Annina, Annetta and similar. 

Cama Deruta: A Happy Ending Story for a Case Story

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Lost crafts: The Art of Straw Weaving in Piegaro

FIVE "fiascos" from left to right:
1. An old fiasco I found in the home I live.
2. The fiasco I bought in the Piazza of Piegaro from Peppina.
3. 4. 5. The fiascos I made at the classes of straw weaving! 

News From Piegaro, Italy - The art of straw weaving around the bottle called a "fiasco" belongs nowadays to volunteers promoting the town upon appointment of the cultural association "Il Borgo". Artists give free demonstrations to tourists in the Piazza in the evenings and for 5 euros you can take a "fiasco" home with you. The association "Il Borgo" gives all the revenues from the sales of these“fiascos” to the promotion of the art of straw weaving in Italy and abroad. It is also possible to take lessons at the local Glass Museum for the same price! 

Herewith follows a description of the art from the files of the Glass Museum in Piegaro: 

"Flask production is associated  with specific workmanship, called dressing, entrusted up until the 1970s to Tuscan straw-workers of Castelfiorentino, Certaldo, Montelupo, Empoli and Colle Val D’Elsa, and to flask dressers of Piegaro who used sun-dried marsh plants (scarcia).

At first, straw work was done inside the glasswork factories. Then, because of increased production, the containers were taken to the dressers’ homes. This activity served to supplement the modest domestic budget, or even maintain it completely, especially in moments of crisis. The women used to do piecework, for very long hours, often even after supper and on Sunday morning. They would work seated on little stools since this enabled them to hold the flask better.

Technique and Instruments

The scarcia was always kept soaked in water so that it would not break when used and would not cut the worker’s hands. When there was an urgent consignment, the women organized a work chain, leaving the best dresser to finish off the work […].

The only instruments used in this craft were often passed down from mother to daughter and included needles of various shapes and sizes, and a pair of scissors. The plants used to obtain the sala or scarcia were picked on the banks of the lakes or marshes. The scarcia was also used for the padded parts of the chairs.

fiasco on the left: binding technique,
fiasco on the right winding technique,
 classical of Piegaro.

The two most common working techniques were binding, where leaves of scarcia were inserted vertically between the base and the shoulder of the flask, and winding, which was used to cover a certain type of flask, the pulcianella, in which a cord made of interweaved leaves started at the base of the flask and was wound round up to the shoulder. A short cord was added to the finished flask to make it easier to carry when holding more than one container in the same hand".

(Credits: from the leaflets of the Glass Museum in Piegaro).

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Your staying in Piegaro: Visit the website of my friends Colleen Simpson and Tom Webb, owners of L'Antica Vetreria:  the first glass factory in Piegaro from the 13th century is now a beautiful Villa! www.anticavetreria.net.