ARTISAN PROCESSING OF METALS IN FERMO (MARCHE REGION, ITALY) : PASSION AND ART OF MARCO RUTILI


I met Marco Rutili, father of Camilla and Giorgia in the primary school of Salvano first, then in the middle school of Torre di Palme, schools where the young daughters, now in their twenties, attended. Marco, now 56 years old, is a craftsman of metalworking, wrought iron, aluminum, stainless steel, copper, bronze. He collaborates with the school teachers for the creation of workshops suitable for children, making them fall in love with craftsmanship and created objects.

His shop, along the State Road 16 Adriatica, is a large, clean, tidy room. Marco has a refined, cultured, competent language, combined with remarkable practical and creative skills. He tries to interpret the client’s tastes, studies the contexts, makes the proposal and when the architect is involved he discusses the work, enriching it with his ideas. Prepare a graphic sketch which he carefully preserves.
He is a blacksmith who graduated from the artistic high school, with a lot of creativity, which is not learned at school, but is a gift that is refined and perfected with experience.

Wandering around the shop I observe three ovens, with hammers on top, the stirrup bending metal, the pneumatic hammer, the blowtorch pipes. I listen to the hammering with rhythmic cadence that are used to forge the red-hot iron into the desired shape. It is a pleasant musicality that helps the eyes to follow the work in harmony.

In 1870, the Rutili lived in Lapedona, where they manufactured agricultural tools in their shop. Then the three sons of Amedeo, first generation, moved to Marina Palmense. They opened their shops. Marco, having finished his military service, learned the art of his father Armando and his uncle Umberto, combining innovation with tradition. He shows me his creations on the computer: objects, pieces of heraldry for doors and portals, a bolted wrought iron door, without welding and with a thermal and acoustic insulation system, a gate like “A tree of life” with deep roots, the artistic handles, the hand-made curls, the interlocking game.

“There is a considerable demand for wrought iron processing – he says – there is a lack of young people, moreover the professional institute does not have an adequate specialization address”. His pieces can be found in specialized magazines and art books. The productions arrive in the Fermo area, in the Marche region, throughout Italy, the USA, Russia, Holland, Germany, England and beyond. He has just created a winter garden in an Art Nouveau villa in Campofilone, the owner of which is a lawyer of the Brussels Court of Appeal.

Creativity, passion, professionalism make the creations unique. Kind, polite, innovative, creative, Marco captures the soul of metals in his creations to transform them into art, into masterpieces.