The daughter of an antiquarian, Italian jeweler Anna Porcu inherited a knowledge of antique artifacts and an eye for fineness of detail. After receiving her Master’s degree in art history, she did archival work in the Gucci archives in Milan and at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Inspired by these experiences, she decided to create her own collection of jewelry using rare antique cameos. Porcu searches the world for museum-quality cameos in materials including shell, ivory, amber, agate and lava. She has become an expert in this art, which dates back to ancient Roman times. Porcu re-crafts the cameos’ original settings, adding sterling silver and sometimes gold, and then transforms each of these totally unique pieces by placing them on a contemporary backdrop of leather. All of the leather, and the entire process of creating the jewelry, is done by expert artisans in Tuscany.
