Episode 06: Lab58

      In Alberobello, the city of the “Trulli,” Lab58 created custom furniture for clients who needed to fill specific spaces: a niche, a trullo, or the corner of a historic home.

      For the two friends who had joined forces and skills to create the wood workshop, craftsmanship was an idea that took shape through manual work and gave life to a finished, personalized, and unique product.

      Lab58 had chosen to build a personal approach to the client and rejected mass production. Originality distinguished their pieces of furniture: the soft curves of a desk or the design of their wooden “pinnacles,” which reproduced those placed atop the Trulli as emblems of the family they belonged to or as symbols of good fortune.

      These two artisans were the surgeons of wood and possessed deep knowledge of those grains—of olive or even exotic woods—that made each product unique. Their experience in a territory so architecturally complex had enabled them to work with intricacy in a way a Tuscan cabinetmaker probably wouldn’t have known how to do.

      By now, Lab58 no longer exists: it was not possible to help, and probably to understand, a craft reality of immeasurable value. That passion which we at Mesciu Gigi had seen brimming in the bright eyes of two gifted and willing young men had faded. That idea that had wanted to give life to something extraordinary did not take shape, and it was right that this be known; it had to be known that it was essential to do everything possible to enhance every resource of the territory and support two talents who, for Mesciu Gigi, would always represent Lab58.

      This episode is our tribute — a wish for abundance not only for those we had interviewed, but for every artisan whose light felt dimmed by an increasingly industrialized world.

      The story of Lab58 deserves to be told. The story of craftsmanship deserves to be defended — and that is exactly what our interview series is committed to.

Ad maiora, ragazzi!

      Mani Nobili is an original series hosted by Mesciu Gigi that invites viewers into conversations with artisans of the highest order, craftsmen dedicated entirely to their craft. This series is an invitation to enter the sacred spaces of Italian craftsmanship where human led design, guided by tradition, functionality, and intention give form to beauty.

      Through the eyes of our President, Nicolas Segura, and the voice of our General Manager of Italy, Luca Giusto, we traverse the storied region of Apulia to meet the master artisans whose work sustains the soul of a true Made in Italy. From tailoring to sculpture, from ceramics to woodwork, each episode offers a glimpse into a world where technique is inherited and iterated upon, tradition is honored and enriched, and every gesture speaks of devotion and purpose.

      This series is more than a chronicle of fine workmanship; it is a celebration of vocation, of lives lived in pursuit of excellence, of heritage made tangible, of the subtle but profound harmony between mind, body, and soul that elevates an object by uniting it to a rich tapestry of craft dating back millennia.

      As alluded to previously, this inaugural season is dedicated to the artisans of the region of Apulia. Each month, we dedicate ourselves to one artisan. Monthly on the fifteenth, we unveil a new chapter in their story on our YouTube channel.

      We invite you to walk beside us in this ongoing journey, a journey not only into craft, but into the heart of what it means to create with purpose.

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