Certaldo · Chianti · Tuscany
Hand-painted ceramics,
one piece at a time
In her workshop at Fiano, in Certaldo, Gabriella Carbini shapes, glazes and paints every piece freehand. Two firings and a single stroke of the brush: no two pieces ever come out alike.
Painted freehand
No transfers, no prints. The brush meets raw glaze, which takes in the colour the instant it is laid down.
Fired twice
Once before the decoration and once after. The second firing fixes the colour and gives it depth: it is the fire that makes every piece unique.
Signed by the maker
Every piece leaves the studio signed by Gabriella Carbini.
Open to visitors
The workshop is also the shop: walk in, look around, choose, and take it home.
From the catalogue
One of a kind, painted one by one
“Vendemmia” grape tableware
“Grappoli” grape wall plate
Large “Girasole” plate
Mug with a hand-painted name
Pastel floral tableware
Pastel floral mugs
Turquoise and gold tableware
Turquoise and gold serving plate
“Azure flowers” tableware
“Azure scrolls” wall plate
“Bruno” wall plate with lotus flowers
“Bruno” wall plate with scrolls
Chequered biscuit jar with lid
Round chequered jar with rosettes
Tall chequered jar
“Peonie” bowl
“Raffaellesco” wall plate
Olive serving plate
Hexagonal lemon tile
Stacking lemon bowls
Square “Limoncini” plate
Lemon beaker
Lemon salad bowl
Lemon oil and vinegar cruets with beakers
The artist
Chianti Ceramiche Carbini Gabriella
Gabriella Carbini works in ceramics at Fiano, a hamlet of Certaldo in the heart of the Val d’Elsa: San Gimignano is fifteen minutes away, and the Chianti hills begin just above the village.
There is no decorating department and no mass production: there is Gabriella, a workbench, and the patience of someone who paints one piece at a time. Whatever you take home has passed entirely through her hands.
The catalogue
Three ways into the workshop
From large jars made to be admired to small pieces made to be given, by way of the table you use every day.
Home & interiors
Jars, amphorae, wall plates, centrepieces
Kitchen & table
Plates, bowls, cups, jugs, oil cruets
Gifts
Mugs, ornaments, made-to-order pieces
How a piece is made
Clay, fire and a brush
The shape comes to life on the wheel and dries slowly. Then the first firing, the glaze, and the moment everyone waits for: the decoration, painted freehand onto raw glaze, which takes it in at the first touch. The second firing fixes it for ever.
At the bench
Biscuit ware, a blank canvas
Out of the first firing the pieces come as biscotto: porous, matt, sand-coloured. This is the canvas Gabriella works on: the glaze goes on, the brush draws the pattern, and the colours — lemon yellow, cobalt blue, olive green — each find their place.
Anyone visiting the workshop will find biscuit ware next to the finished pieces: the same ceramics, before and after the fire.
The patterns
Eight patterns, recognisable across a room
Lemons on blue, olives, the red-and-blue ricco of classic maiolica, chequers, bruno, flowers on a pale blue ground, turquoise and gold, pastel florals. Each has its own palette and its own character.
Commissions
A piece made for you
A plate for a niche, a mug with a name, a plaque for the house, a dinner set in the pattern you love. Commissions are agreed in advance, with a drawing and a quotation, and then painted by hand like every other piece from the workshop.
Tell us what you have in mind: we will reply with a proposal.
Where
Via Firenze 83, Fiano di Certaldo
Fiano is a hamlet of Certaldo, in the Val d’Elsa, province of Florence. Above the modern town stands Certaldo Alto, the red-brick hill village where Giovanni Boccaccio spent his last years and died in 1375; you reach it on foot or by funicular.
From here San Gimignano is a quarter of an hour away, Florence a little over half an hour, and the Chianti hills start immediately above, towards Barberino Tavarnelle.
- Monday – Friday 9am–1pm · 4–7.30pm
- Saturday 9am–1pm
- Sunday closed
