Workshop Diego Mele

The smith laboratory was established in Ittiri in 1898 by Diego Mele, then he was replaced by his son Felice and now Diego, the nephew of the founder, is carrying on the activity.
Along with the farming and quarrying tools, the workshop used to produce domestic objects as well, such as spits, tripods, oven shovels for the home made bread and too many objects to list, but which were present in every house for a daily use.
There were, obviously, manufactured articles strictly linked to the traditional architecture such as banisters, main doors crescents, bolts, and door locking devices.
Over the time the working tools production was replaced by industrial production, easily available on the market, whereas the precious manufactures were requested by the connoisseurs, which love to have articles, whose whole processing and artisan are known.
During that time, as today, the instruments of the Ittirese Mele workshop, essentially composed of forge, anvil and hammer, and used thanks to a very appreciated, not only locally, technical and hand ability, hasn’t changed and the starting production still carries on, even though functionalized and with decoring and furnishing characteristics, based on the requests of customers, which seem to appreciate it rather than mass production, which has nothing in common with the traditional craft works.
There is a substantial difference between our precious craft production and the mass production: what we do embodies the soul and the character of its master, rendering it unique and valuable.