Design and Architecture Magazine, October 2004
While many are inspired by Tuscan's bounty, few actually know what to do with it. For Gillion Carrara, the months she spends each year in Montalcino, a medieval hill town outside of Siena, are a time to forage, and to foster her considerable imagination. A metalsmith and an adjunct professor in the fashion department at the School of the Art institute of Chicago, everything about Carrara's style and talent is oversized - from her dark-rimmed glasses to the striking jewelry line she creates from Tuscan briarwood, stainless steel, bone and horn. Success and international acclaim for her cuffs, rings and brooches have always followed her, but this year's trip resulted in a new line of tabletop goods inspired by the classic shapes of regional Italian table implements she spied while visiting friends' hillside homes. Keeping in mind the shape of a jam knife and the handle of an interesting magnifying glass, Carrara found the materials to craft a streamlined new collection that is, as always, a homage to nature, to function, and to art.
Writer Stacy Wallace-Albert