Ceramiche Tapinassi was born in 1954 by Gino Tapinassi.
The Tuscan ceramic production of our company has been characterized from the very beginning by the artistic and aesthetic value and by the deep connection with the culture, history and tradition of the Casentino, a fascinating land of singular beauty where our headquarters is located.
Today, after more than seventy years, Ceramiche Tapinassi is a modern and avant-garde company, capable of producing objects, designed and manufactured in an entirely artisan manner.
In our wide range of handcrafted products, objects for the table occupy a prominent position, made in 24 colors (Osteria collection), the prestigious range of lighting items made with the aid of ancient majolica processing techniques, and a large range of furnishing objects suitable to be inserted in multiple and different living environments.
Visiting our company it is possible to observe a fascinating combination that sees the tradition of our territory and the modernity of our days walk together.
Leonardo Bonaccorso Master of Gino Tapinassi
Sculptor and ceramist Leonardo Bonaccorso was born in 1912, in the province of Catania.
At the beginning of the thirties he left for military service destined for Perugia where he approached ceramics by collaborating with the “C.M.A”.
In 1937 he opened a small workshop in Perugia and enrolled in the ceramics courses of the “Regia Scuola per la Ceramica” of Faenza.
At the end of the Second World War he worked at the “FERREA” factory dealing with third-fire decorations and didactics.
In 1949 he moved to Arezzo where, assisted by Giovanni Capponi, he opened a ceramic workshop called “Sicilian Spring”.
In 1954, when the workshop was closed, he founded the ceramic manufacture “Maioliche d’Arte Bonaccorso”, which, in addition to Giovanni Capponi, also included “Gino Tapinassi” and Matteo Capitini.
In 1959 the factory turned off the ovens.
The Story of Gino Tapinassi
He was born in Castel San Niccolo ‘on February 12, 1928 to Giuseppe and Isola.
Raised between the two world wars, he graduated from the ITS of Bibbiena and while waiting to find work as an industrial technician, he attended a well-known local ceramic company (Ferrel) where he met two important painters of the time, Bonaccorso and Bentivoglio, immediately demonstrating a natural predisposition for painting and a high learning rate.
Destiny wanted him to become in a short time decoration department head and to be particularly linked to Maestro Bonaccorso, so much so that in 1949 Gino moved to Arezzo at the invitation of the same Maestro, who in that year founded the “Sicilian Spring” workshop together with master Giovanni Capponi.
In 1956 he returned to Casentino and decided to set up his own business in collaboration with the potter Paolo Mattonelli, creating small objects decorated in gold that were highly appreciated by foreign tourists.
In 1960 she married Innocenti Maria Luisa in the Cathedral of Arezzo, who later joined the business started by her husband.
A significant event for the development of the business and the purchase of the first gas oven for firing ceramics in 1962, which allowed the company to expand with the inclusion of several girls in the decoration department.
The collaboration with the Morini firm of Arezzo, started in 1964, allowed the business an important development. significant.
Another fundamental collaboration for the development of the company was established in 1972 with the “Ceramiche il Pino” of Florence; the large amount of production that this collaboration implies is also satisfied thanks to the inclusion in the company of the three children and an expansion of the production space which in 1986 came to be around 2000 m2 and to count 14 employees.
In the following years, the company, which in 1989 took the name “Ceramiche Tapinassi di Tapinassi Gino”, collaborated with high-level international companies such as Starbucks, Kaffeekontor and Williams-Sonoma.
Today the company produces a limited collection, linked to the tradition and history of the artisan workshop born in 1956, called the “Finezze”, which is inspired by those artisan masterpieces that Gino created at the beginning of his career as a painter.
The production activity that still today distinguishes the company, follows and refers to the philosophy of Gino, between luxury, tradition and poetry.
PROCESSING
Ceramiche Tapinassi creates an infinity of Tuscan ceramic objects using a lot of traditional techniques, such as the workmanship and the painter’s brush for the creation of wonderful art objects.
The creation of our products is done exclusively by hand, this process is necessary to give shape to the still wet clay to create the object.
Given the great experience, our laboratory uses techniques such as colombino, plate, lathe molds etc.
Subsequently the object is subjected to the drying process, the product is finished, sponged and placed in the oven for the first firing at 1000 degrees, this is the phase of the biscuit.
In this phase, the biscuit is dusted with compressed air to eliminate any residual dust that can compromise the adhesion of the glaze, then the surface is glazed which can be done by immersion or spray. As soon as they dry, the artistic ceramic objects are ready for the decoration phase or, if they do not require decoration, for the oven.
The painter decorates the object color by color until the drawing is completed. The colors consist of metal oxides added with fluxing substances that melt them at a temperature of 940 ° C.
The objects are carefully positioned on the oven trolleys to prevent them from remaining in contact with each other and from welding together. At the end of cooking, which requires a cycle of 18 hours between ascent and descent and a temperature of 940 °, the objects have the classic glossy surface with bright colors.