How it was born

Firenzeraku is a project that stems from the idea of three siblings, Angelo, Simone and Lavinia who, following in the footsteps of their father, the well-known ceramist Antonio Zaccarella, have created a line of artistic clocks made of ceramic using the ancient raku technique.

After years of experience acquired in Italy and abroad, in particular in the cities of Rome and Tokyo, they landed in the heart of the Tuscan capital. The choice of Florence was not by chance; in fact, the initial phase of the project was born during a cold and creative winter weekend spent in Florence. After three years of research and planning, the idea became reality in March 2019 with the opening of the Firenzeraku shop in the historic centre of Florence.

The strength of this initiative lies in the originality of the products, made entirely by hand in the Laboratorio Zaccarella, founded in Molise in 1980. From the experience of the Zaccarella brothers both in their father's creative studio and in specific courses of study, their creative ideas are born, giving life to magnificent clocks, pendulums, vases, decorative panels and other objects in fine ceramics.

Unique colours, geometric lines, abstract figures and fairy-tale suggestions are the hallmarks of the artefacts. The unmistakable style of these products is obtained thanks to the personal interpretation of raku, a ceramic working technique born in Japan in the 16th century.

The Raku technique

The Japanese term raku literally means 'living with joy', a message that invites harmony with people and things in the world. What mainly distinguishes raku from traditional ceramics is the firing process. The objects, taken out of the kiln at a temperature of around 1000°, are immersed in organic material such as sawdust, leaves, paper, etc., to achieve an oxidation-reduction process.

This special technique makes it possible to obtain artistic pieces with particularly beautiful colour effects, unrepeatable in their metallic reflections.