The workshop

A second life

Walking into Bottega Vasì® you found strange and bizarre things in great number: the indispensable tools Vasì made and used in his spare time, such as gadgets for picking mushrooms and asparagus, and more complex machines, like a wood lathe made entirely by him from the old parts of a machine that no longer worked, which today, as we have grown used to doing, we would have thrown away because it was broken.

In the workshop everything could have a second life: a piece of wood, a scrap of hide or leather. What had been raw material for one thing became raw material for a new invention, for a new idea. Thanks to a passion for doing things himself, to his ingenuity and his wish to try new things, sometimes even apparently pointless ones, I saw my father create extraordinary things in his workshop.

The workshop ceiling, full of hanging lasts, patterns and tools — Tools and patterns hanging in the workshop. Photo: Patrik Gunnar Helin.

A wooden beam with dozens of tools hanging from it: awls, knives, pincers, leather patterns

A rack full of wooden-handled tools, worn by use

A corner of the workshop: a wooden Pinocchio, a carved head, jars and tools

A card hanging in the workshop with a handwritten dedication: “To my friend Basilio, master shoemaker, a keepsake to thank him for all the favours received. Affectionately”

The tools and a corner of the workshop; on the right, a handwritten dedication “to my friend Basilio, master shoemaker”. Photos: Serena Marinucci (second and fourth), Giorgia Vlassich (third).

The Pinocchios

There was a time when making Pinocchios became a priority: every day whole “families” of Pinocchios of all sizes were born from his hands, and they were always given away to grandchildren and friends.

A family of painted wooden Pinocchios of different sizes on the workshop bench — A “family” of Pinocchios on the bench.

The barrels

The barrels, another subject you could write a book about. I think that, beyond their use, my father loved making them because it took him back to his childhood, when, as a carpenter’s son, he helped my grandfather build them: in those days they earned our family its bread.

A miniature barrel on a decorated stand, next to a small cask with copper hoops — Barrels made by Basilio.

The shoes

As for the shoes, I think it was a date with destiny. When you are a young man from Montegranaro in the post-war years, when the economic recovery has only just begun and you leave the countryside to “learn a trade”, you could hardly avoid ending up making shoes. There was no lack of work and the talent was already showing: the rest is today’s history.

A sole stitched by hand in the workshop (46 seconds).

The watches

The watches were a surprise even to me, perhaps because I had never seen him sit down to make one. One day, rummaging through his things, I picked one up, I think a first prototype: it was clearly unfinished, but its shape was already well defined.

I never understood why he chose watches, but I think I reached the right conclusion: the watch is the tool that marks time, the only thing you can neither stop nor buy. Time was one of the things my father valued most in everything he did. Every thing and every living being has its own, it did not matter which as long as it was always well spent and used to do something good. That is exactly what I wanted to do: not to stop and not to waste what my father had done… in Time.

See the workshop’s products