I met a local artisan in Catania, Mr. Salvatore Rossi, who has been making chairs since he was 15. He is at the end of the 3rd generation of chair makers and he was really surprised to see a young guy interested in chairs.I attended the workshop quite often for few weeks to get to know him more.
After the first time I stopped bringing the camera with me because I noticed that he didn’t like it, and actually since I stopped, he became more friendly. Mr. Ross by himself produces beautiful and elegant traditional Sicilian chairs, which are based on drawings from 1800’s, but he claims that after the opening of IKEA his production has dropped down.
I invited him for a coffee and asked what he thinks about the chair sellers in the street and their products. He says that those furniture are usually produced in Egypt, with low-quality materials and if you know about chairs you could recognize the difference from far away. Even if his chairs are entirely handmade, they are still cheaper than the one on the street. The “golden” chair, which is spray painted with cheap, fake gold paint, range from 200 to 300 euros.
