The agenda for the weekend starts with an Italian BBQ

As I went for my early morning run, this morning promised a splendid sunny – maybe even warm (almost hot?) – kind of day.  I spent most of the run planning out my activities for the weekend – BBQ Friday night after work with a glass of Chianti enjoying the sunset over the vineyard, Saturday was to be leisurely including town hopping (Greve and Panzano are bound to have a farm market going on), B-day shopping, gardening and an evening visit to Florence then Sunday (with the promise of really lousy weather) my intention is to cuddled up on the couch and enjoy one of my new e-books.  So my plans to BBQ with DH this evening were almost confirmed and written in stone.

But as I look out my office window and desperately search for the sun, I realize that I had better come up with an alternative plan – at least as far as the grilled chicken with fresh Tuscan Herbs and jacket potatoes are concerned.  Pizza anyone?

Saturday has received rave reviews from the local weatherman – sun sun sun and then more sun.  So town hopping is still on the agenda.  DH and I like to get out the vespa, don our helmets and wind around the country roads looking for a food festival or farmer market where we can have fun picking and choosing all kinds of yummy goodies.  We then pile it all into the basket attached to the back of the bike and anything that doesn’t fit goes into my handbag.  We drive home as fast as possible in order to set up outside in our garden under the umbrella and eat it all in one go!

I have to do some B-Day shopping because my little brother is going to be celebrating at the end of the month, and I don’t want him to wait 4 months (like my little sister did) to get his gift.  I have to calculate normal postal delays between Tuscany and California – AND I have to calculate my perpetual procrastination in taking the box to the post office to actually send it.  He (ever so) casually dropped a hint that our three section Toscanella briefcase was on his wish list  but . . . let’s just say if he wants a briefcase for his B-day he’d better come and visit me first.  I was actually thinking more along the line of a document holder or an iPad case.

I will be planting my zucchini plants this weekend so that they will be ready to sprout flowers real soon – and that of course means fried zucchini flowers.  YUM! And since zucchini plants seem to be constantly in the production mode, two plants should keep us eating zucs until … I don’t know October?  Which is just fine by me because I have at least 50 different ways to make them – the first of which is a Primavera sauce for the Pasta:

2 baby zucchini, 1 baby onion (or sweet onion), 2 ripe tomatoes, 150-200 gr. Ricotta cheese, a bunch of fresh parsley (or basil), 200 grs pasta and as much grated parmesan cheese as you like. (basics for any Italian recipe include Extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper)

Chop the onion and begin to sautee in extra virgin olive oil.

Chop the Zucchini and add to the onion.

Chop the tomato and as soon as the onion and zucchini are soft and golden add the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook until they are soft and you can smell the flavours mixing and remove from heat.  Mix in the ricotta cheese and parsely.

Make your favorite type of short pasta. Drain (put leave just a little bit of the water).

Mix with the sauce and add some of the cooking water if it needs to be thinned out.

Sprinkle the cheese and serve . . . with lots of bread because the left over sauce will need to be scooped up, its just too good to leave behind.

Well, as the Italians are often apt to say – let’s hope for the best.  Hopefully I will get home in time to at least have a little happy hour before the rain falls.

Wishing you all a great weekend – leave a comment with your plans!

A little bit of help please

I am looking to do some advertising for Pierotucci, Leather Factory and I have two possible images to use. Have a look, and let me know which one calls your attention most – and what does it communicate to you.
I appreciate your help!

The first image centers on the fact that all of our products are handmade right here in Florence Italy – what I don’t like is that it doesn’t really show our full range of products.

The second pulls in a Florence skyline and a selection of our products, but I am not sure it really communicates that we hand make everything right here in Italy.

A Rainbow of Colors from Florence Italy

It’s not often I am enthusiastic about special offers from my own place of work. I mean I understand it’s not an easy choice to put handcrafted items on sale for wooshing discounted prices. It’s especially difficult when you take into consideration the manual work that goes into selecting the leather, cutting, prepping, assembling, sewing and refining each and everyone of the handbags with a Pierotucci label.  The detail seems endless and it is just natural that the producers want the price to reflect the exquisite quality of the handbag. However, it happens that M & M (the bosses) get soft hearts every once and a while . . . especially when we are talking about la Mamma (anyone who knows an Italian Male will understand that the Mother has a special place in their masculine hearts) SO -  they has relented for a pre-Mother’s Day Sale.

Since they gave me free reign on choosing the leather handbags (another surprising relent on their part)  I turned to my colleagues and we pulled out some of our favorite bags.  Why are they favorites? For me it was the simplicity of the designs.  I adore a bag that moves from morning to noon to evening without skipping a beat.  I want a bag with that’s not bulky, so that doesn’t “weigh” me down. And I love color! I always find myself gravitating towards jeans (in dark blue), heels in black and I love dark blue shirts and sweaters . . . but there is an inner me just begging to express itself in some little way – YES! that’s it, a splash of color in the form of a genuine Italian leather handbag from Florence Italy.

Master Craftsman, Marco Galli

We are very proud of the craftsmen and women who make up our production staff. They do good work and take pride in sending out top quality, handmade leather handbags, bags and accessories. We would like to honor them and their stories in the next few blogs.
Our master craftsman, he has been working with leather for …. well …. let’s just say most of his life without going into numbers. We all like to laugh and say that when Marco started working here he had a head full of hair … but after over 40 years of working here, the stress just wore him down! Though he should be enjoying his retirement, Marco finds the energy to come to work everyday – sometimes to fill in when we need an extra hand and some times to teach the new entries the tricks of the trade.  He has worked his way through all the varies phases and is now our go to man when problems arise, we are designing new models or when a special customization requires us to modify a model. Marco has been with Pierotucci for ages – and is a fundamental element of our production team. In the image below you can see him working small pieces of leather in a machine that thins out the edges and makes it easier for the seams to be sewn together. If we ever have any doubts about the product or the leather we simply go to Marco for the answers. To sum up his Pierotucci responsibilities in just a few words:  he handles production from start to finish (he decides who cuts the patterns, who preps the pieces, who sews and assembles and he has the final say on quality control questions) … and when he is not acting as production manager he is a huge fan of the Florentine Serie A soccer team . . .  and like any good Italian man,  flirts outrageously with all the girls.

New Addition, Marco II

We are very proud of the craftsmen and women who make up our production staff. They do good work and take pride in sending out top quality, handmade leather handbags, bags and accessories. We would like to honor them and their stories in the next few blogs.

Marco started working leather when he was only 17 – and though he has changed jobs once or twice, he finds that he always comes back to working with leather. He has a very particular skill, that is taglio a mano and it is one that is passed down from one master craftsman to another… its not a skill learned by reading a book!  He has recently replaced one of our craftsman who finally decided he was going into retirement (before the Italian government changed its age requirements….again!)  He can free hand cut patterns instead of using a machine and the dye.  Since he has worked alongside talented craftsman all his life it was easy for him to acquire the steady hand, quick eye for fitting patterns and  learn the pressure need to create a clean cut for the different types of leather.   He has experience cutting jackets, wallets and bags. But if you ask him, he would much rather be cutting individual pieces for our customized products than big orders.

In the photo below you can see Marco tracing out the pieces of one of our Toscanella messenger bags made in vacchetta leather.  Each bag is hand cut and then individually pieced together by skilled craftsmen … and women.  Marco is Tuscan by birth, having grown up and lived in an area southeast of Florence called Val d’Arno (valley of the Arno river which flows throw Florence) – which is probably why Marco has such a passion for fishing.  He said he’d never fish in the Arno river … its just no fun, but he does enjoy seeking out the streams and creeks that abound in the mountains surrounding the valley.

Learning the ropes of Italian leather in Florence Italy

Marco is our newest and youngest addition to the team. His first job experience was working in a cafe serving coffee and danishes but he has found that he much prefers the calm and quite of the leather production to the constant chatter and banter of an Italian coffee house. He is training on our leather cutter machine which uses metal forms called dyes.  At his side, watching his every move are Marco Galli, Renzo and Bruno (now in retirement) and they have been slowly showing him the ropes.

This is sure to be an occupation that installs a love for the Florentine traditions . . . even though he cheers for the wrong an out of town soccer team.  But we let him slide on this since he was born and grew up in Sardinia, a beautiful island off the coast of Tuscany.

At the moment he works on cutting our leather  wallets and key holders. These are small and intricate pieces.  He will select the leather, developing an eye for homogenous coloring, unusual or ugly markings and learning how to place the dye or what looks like a large metal cookie cutter on the leather.  Then following all safety procedures he will proceed to press the dye with the machine seen below soas to cut several piece at one time in an identical format.

What does he like best about his job? It gives him lots of time to think and relax.  He loves to draw and design, so he uses this quite time to restore his creative juices and let inspiration come to him for the next project.

If we had to use just one word

We are very proud of the craftsmen and women who make up our production staff. They do good work and take pride in sending out top quality, handmade leather handbags, bags and accessories. We would like to honor them and their stories in the next few blogs.

It would be that Renza is very enthusiastic about her work.  She has been handling leather bags since 1974 and has been working with Pierotucci for the last 6 years. Though she has experience in all areas of the production her main responsibility here is the assembly of the bags.  When talking to Renza about her work, it is easy to interpret the passion she puts into assembling each and every item.  Her primary responsibilities include piecing them together and stitching them up.  Years of experience have taught her the tricks of the trade.  Since once piece of leather is never the same as the next, she calls on these skills to insure that each piece will be a work of art.  Renza truly enjoys compiling a bag, in fact it gives her great satisfaction to see the final results and even more so when a client sends comments of appreciation.  She is always quick with a smile and has that typical quick humor that the Tuscans and even more so the Florentine are famous for.  In the photo below you can see Renza hand sewing one of our bags in a green vegetable dyed vachetta leather.  Though most seams are done on a sewing machine to insure secure and even stitches, there are some pieces which are just too complicated and require a steady hand!  Renza is what we call a Fiorentina D.O.C., just like the wine 100% authentic, and when she isn’t sitting at her work table she likes to be outside walking the countryside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

Daniella

Daniella has been working with Pierotucci for the last 4 years – however her career in leather started when she was only 14 years old.  Having owned her own business for several years she is skilled in all the various phases of productions – but at Pierotucci she does what we call “lavoro al banco”.  This phrase literally translated, means table work – and in practice she does the bag assembly.  Once all the pieces have been prepped, edged and all the accessories are counted out the pieces are all passed on to Daniella, who then assembles them so that they produce a bag.  The compiling of the bag includes not only the sewing but adding the lining, attaching handles, snaps and rivets.  Some pieces are glued together before they are sewn and all edges need to match up perfectly.  As seen in the photo below, she will have a sample of the finished product on her desk and then she will proceed to prepare each phase – once she gets to a point that it needs to be sewn she passes it to her colleague and waits for it to return so she can move on to the next phase.  Daniella will very proudly have you note that she is not from Florence – but born and raised in Antella, a little town on the outskirts of Chianti.  When she finishes off with work she heads home to her house filled with her faithful companions – her favorite of which is Yuma, a 6 year old hound dog that follows her everywhere!

Be – Bop Betta

Part II  We are very proud of the craftsmen and women who make up our production staff. They do good work and take pride in sending out top quality, handmade leather handbags, bags and accessories. We would like to honor them and their stories in the next few blogs.

Betta, which is short for Elisabetta (that’s Elisabeth in English) has been with Pierotucci since ’78 and she doesn’t look a day over 30! (Work with us here!!) Not only is she our “Jolly” filling in when the orders need extra help cutting the leather, inserting the lining or  composition of the bags but she is also responsible for the prepping of the accessories.  This means she reads the patterns that are to go into production and cuts the zips, counts the buttons, snaps, logos and rivets. She takes care of all the ordering for extras and the organization of all the leather in our warehouse.  Without her bee booping around the production department we wouldn’t have a clue where to find anything.  In the photo below you can see her counting out the rivets for our Toscanella line of ladies handbags and mens bags.  She pitches in when it is necessary to prep the handles, assemble the buckles and mark the decorative lines on the bags.  Betta was born and raised in Florence and is quite proud of her city.  She told us that Sundays are reserved watching for her favorite soccer  team (VIOLA from Florence) but most probably she reserves Sundays for soccer only because the shops are closed and she can’t follow her first love… shopping!!

Renato

We are very proud of the craftsmen and women who make up our production staff. They do good work and take pride in sending out top quality, handmade leather handbags, bags and accessories. We would like to honor them and their stories in the next few blogs. Renato grew up working leather. In fact he gained his experience with his own business which specialized working cuoio in an artistic manner, such as the recreation of pieces that historically make up the Florentine leather tradition, for example  the tacco a/k/a traditional Florence coin purse. He has been with us for about 5 years and his primary occupation here at Pierotucci is the prepping of the individual pieces, in other words his job is setting up the “bones” of the bag.   He paints edges, trims and buffs seams, prepares the buckles and and handles.

In the photo below you can see Renato as he edges a piece of leather with a terracotta paint that seals the leather from absorb too much from the environment.  So you can see his job requires a calm and tranquil disposition and a very steady hand – soft spoken and always with a smile he has a personality which fits his vocation.  He was born and grew up in Florence and declares himself to be a fan of the VIOLA soccer team – though he wouldn’t loose any sleep over a poor game!  He enjoys travelling around Italy and exploring the nooks and crannies of this incredible land.