Creative Woodworks & crafts 2002-03, страница 56

An Italian craftsman uses a local wood to produce garden gates whose artistic

beauty harmonizes with their rustic look.

GEGE SANNA'S JUNIPER GATES

When wood becomes a work of art, Aggius-Sardinia-ltaly

by Simons Sanna

The juniper is at once one of the most mysterious and useful woods on the island of Sardinia. Its qualities make it suitable for every land of workmanship. In the past, this wood was used not only to craft useful objects for everyday life such as looms and agricultural tools but also in the structural members of buildings, as ii is almost unassailable by wood parasites. Its berries were used for the production of both dyes and spirits. Interestingly, in the middle ages this wood was thought capable of driving away ghosts; perhaps because of its strong smell.

A juniper tree takes decades to attain the characteristics which allow it to be worked. That's why if is protected by particular laws which control its harvesting. For this reason in Aggius, in Gege Sanna's artistic workshop, most of the juniper used is well seasoned, salvaged from the demolition of old buildings.

Working this wood is not easy because of its hardness and physical constitution, but its curves and knots make juniper a visually fascinating material. Sometimes the roots and the trunk each appear to become abstract things which play at chasing each other through the virtuosity of the branches which interlace in a ethereal way. So its particular shapes, together with its scent and color, each feature in the achievement of real works of art, set on walls or simply used to adorn gardens.

Juniper was used extensively in the seventies to ornament some finer hotels in Costa Smeralda. These days, it is the favored wood on the northeastern coast of Sardinia, especially in the mansions of Porto Cervo and Porto Rotondo. As worked by Gege Sanna, the juniper keeps its charm intact, giving us real and pure visual pleasure.

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Used as an ornamental wood in the seventies, juniper is now used to ornament the mansions of Porto Cervo and Porto Rotondo.

The juniper takes decades to reach maturity. That is why most of the wood Gege uses has been salvaged from old buildings.

24 • Creative Wnnriwnrks & Crafts March 2002