In the Lithos artisan workshop, the most Apulian material there is processed: limestone.
In the artisan workshop in Alberobello, in front of your eyes, Nicola Loperfido transforms rough stones into real artistic creations. The highlight of the very nice craftsman is the miniature trulli, which perfectly represent all the characteristics of the exceptional houses of Alberobello in a workmanlike manner but on a reduced scale.
But Lithos is much more: engraved paintings and bas-relief stones, chessmen and stone signs, lamp-shaped trulli pinnacles, an infinity of truly admirable furnishing objects in their essentiality and, at the same time, in their creativity.
Nicola combines different techniques in his creations: engraving, miniature, bas-relief, and real sculpture, often joining them together to create unique and unrepeatable objects, as artisan tradition wants.
The ** artisan workshop ** of ** Nicola Loperfido **, ** "Lithos" **, offers an infinite number of creations, worked in ** Apulian limestone **. ** Nicola ** training school comes directly from ** trulli **. For several years he has worked in the yards of the ** trullari **, restoring real ** trulli ** and learning to work the ** stone ** with the traditional "martellina".
It is precisely on the construction sites that the idea comes to give space to his artistic vein on that material, the ** limestone **, which he has now come to know very well.
In addition to this, there is the family ** souvenir ** shop to carry on, in the heart of the ** Rione Monti **, on which ** Nicola ** decides to give a new and different face, without homologating to the context. With ** "Lithos" ** he decides to create something that could offer something new and different every time. A real challenge to himself, with a continuous learning curve, in which every day is an incentive to do better.
The ** stone processing ** is absolutely manual, initially only with a pincer, file, and hacksaw. Over time, electric tools were added, but always manual, and the use of numerically controlled machines is categorically excluded. The beauty of this work, after all, is seeing the ** stone ** take shape manually. Nicola's passion can be seen in every single piece produced, from the simplest to the most complex, but surely, it is in the most complex and personalized products, where the personal challenge is greater, that all his desire to overcome himself is evident.
The Lithos artisan laboratory closes for the winter from November 1st to March 30th to make all its products entirely by hand