The formula is simple: craftmanship = individual + environment. To this sum the craftsman adds his savoir-faire, his choices and his personality. The environment and nature provide the materials and the inspiration.

After all, this formula can be applied to all human activities, from the humblest manual job to the highest form of literature. This meeting between man and the environment decides everything. It is more of a magic formula than a mathematical formula.

When we are speaking about traditional handicraft from Valle d’Aosta, this union between man and nature, the influence of the mountains is fundamental, along with all its contradictions. Marvellous scenery, woods, waterfalls and pasturelands full of flowers on one hand; on the other an environment which is difficult to “tame”, cold, ice, precipices, sharp rocks.

Handicraft has developed on this land, at times fascinating but also sublime, and add to this the great heritage of knowledge, techniques, legends and beliefs belonging to the “civilisation alpestre”. Therefore, in order to enter into the world of traditional handicraft, we must become acquainted with the land, its origins and its laws.