Le Arti Orafe

Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School in Florence
Study, learn, experiment without limits or boundaries

Founded in 1985 by Giò Carbone, LAO is a place open to the world, to the contributions, to the influence of styles, tendencies and cultures. It is a laboratory where comparison and dialectics are as important as the teaching programme, and the creations as important as the method.
It is a forge of ideas where versatility rhymes with specialization, and where individual needs can be understood and shared.
 
LAO invented and tested a way of learning that puts the accent on the anti-conventional reworking of traditional procedures and techniques, combining knowledge of craftsmanship with contemporary concepts, exploring the creative use of traditional materials and introducing completely innovative alternatives.
 
This totally new way of teaching has become a model that has contributed to the founding of many other schools in Italy and abroad and has been rewarded by the arrival in Florence of hundreds of students from all over the world.
The school is an accredited body for training education, and its core courses are certified by the international quality system.

Courses and teaching / Link to annual courses
Schools and academies should support and promote artistic research and contemporary design, but also preserve and transmit crafts traditions and skills. Our students learn solid technical foundations which allow them to experiment with new personal creative processes in keeping with our times.
 
The functions, meanings and social customs of jewellery have evolved in a surprising manner since the 1970s, and the way of teaching, studying, and communicating the world of jewellery has changed, as have the working processes and the very way of wearing jewellery.
 
LAO has always been instrumental in this constant evolution: a place of innovation and experimentation, always a step ahead. Patience, enthusiasm, intuition and rigour are the ingredients of our school.
 
The school offers a wide range of pathways, and in different areas:

• Jewellery Making;
• Jewellery design and CAD;
• Stone setting;
• Engraving;
• Fire enamel;
• Lost-wax casting;
   

Flash Courses
These are very short courses lasting 1-5days. They are led by LAO teachers, technicians and assistants, the contents are by their very nature technical/practical and include demonstration by the instructor and exercises by the students.

>> Courses on demand can be arranged for small groups or individuals.

>> Summer Academy 2025 Courses
The 2025 programme of short, intensive and summer courses offer a rich array of options to suit every need. Individuals with some experience, as well as craftsmen and artists looking to add something new to their skills or start a new venture, and even those who have never tried their hand at jewellery making, will find intriguing and stimulating elements. With a flexible time commitment ranging from one day/3 hours to four weeks/110 hours, we provide a training path suitable for all levels of experience.

There are many practical activities to choose from, such as jewelry making, engraving, stone setting, enameling, wax carving and lost-wax casting, as well as drawing, CAD design, and many other interesting topics that you can find on our calendar.

Whether you are a beginner or a professional, student, artisan or designer, we are confident that you will find the perfect course for your training or professional development. Thanks to our experienced teachers and artisans and our perfectly equipped labs, we are certain that the results will always be satisfying.

One of the not-to-be-missed events is the seminar on the granulation process held by the legendary David Loepp, universally recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in this art. We are delighted to welcome him to our labs but hurry to book your spot because the places are limited to 6 participants.

LAO offers Experience courses to all those who want to try their hand at making a piece of jewellery under the guidance of a master craftsman and take a precious memory of Florence with them. No previous experience is required.
The craft experience courses are activated upon request at any time of the year. Interested individuals can contact the administration to request courses with different content from those listed: info@artiorafe.it

For Intensive and Flash courses a 15% discount on total tuition for enrolment and payment by May, 31


Jewellery Making Courses / Link to Goldsmithery
The golden rules for learning by playing, creating studying and progressing while teaching.
 
Main course
Three years Academic Jewellery Making
Contents
Jewellery making workshop, wax modelling, lost-wax casting process, fired enamels, technology, technical drawing, CAD, gemmology, history of jewellery, project culture, project management and group work, marketing, media and communication, product development, collection and development of a portfolio, jewellery photography, history of costume.
   -2500 Hours in class and workshop
   -2000 Hours of independent learning and workshop
   -180 Training credits (ECTS equivalent)

Annual and biennial jewellery-making courses
The annual or two-year courses can be only practical or practical-theoretic. Students who enrol in a one- or two-year course can move to the main (three-year) course. 


Jewellery Design Courses / Link to Jewellery Design courses
Main course
Two years Academic Jewellery design course.
The two-year course is the main course, and leads to the LAO Diploma with a wide-ranging, complete programme, both practical and theoretical.
Contents
Technology, technical drawing, rendering, CAD, gemmology, history of jewellery, culture of the project, fashion trends and tendencies, designing, managing the project and group work, marketing, media and communication, development of the product, collection and development of a portfolio, history of costume.
   -1300 Classroom hours
   -1700 Hours of independent learning and workshop
   -120 training credits (ECTS equivalent).
 
Students in the design courses attend technical and theoretical lessons that enable them to imagine and then draw realistic representations of both individual objects and collections.
The ability to produce technical drawings and photographic renderings constitutes the strength and independence of every designer.
 
Semester and one-year courses, practical or practical-theoretical are always available and can lead to access to the academic course.


Stone Setting Courses / Link to Stone Setting Courses
Stone-setting courses last from three months to one year. All the courses include many practical lessons in the workshop and the main courses provide a module on Gemmology. Short and intensive courses are organized throughout the year and in the summer.
 
Main course
One-year stone-setting course
   -700 Hours in class and workshop
   -50 Hours of self-learning
   -100 Hours of independent exercises
   -30 Training credits (ECTS equivalent)


Hand Engraving / Link to engraving courses 
The art of drawing on metal
 
Two types of burin engraving are offered:
Engraving on flat plates, with decorative and figurative subjects. With this technique, it is possible to produce matrices for printing etchings, decorative panels, boxes and frames.
 
Engraving on jewellery: This surprising technique allows you to produce engravings on jewellery with almost sculptural results, which give the objects an immense added value.
All courses may be of different lengths, and in different periods of the year; they include only workshop lessons and exercises, are open to all and can be combined with other courses on different subjects.


Fired enamel courses / Link to enamel courses
The school offers three courses with levels rising from basic to advanced. The courses are repeated during the year and can be combined with other courses. 
Dry enamelling, champlevé technique, plique-a-jour enamelling, and Cloisonné are some of the techniques taught in the courses.


Collateral activities, projects, collaborations, exhibitions, and publications.
The commitment of LAO in the promotion of Jewellery Culture.
 
In addition to its normal teaching, LAO has a long curriculum of activities, collaborations with people and companies and projects in various geographical areas. Stories of friendship, spreading culture, exchanges and mutual enrichment with professionals, artists, companions on the road.
 
Over the years LAO has worked intensely to promote the culture of jewellery in the widest sense of the term. Exhibitions, conferences and forums, publication of catalogues, and participation in international fairs and exhibitions.
From 2000 to 2005 the school ran the first gallery in Florence dedicated to contemporary jewellery, and since 2005 has organized the PREZIOSA event, the exhibition project which an event that in the many editions presented the work of the most significant jeweller-artists from the 1970s to the present.
 
Over the years, the PREZIOSA project has taken on different dimensions and a different format, to become Florence Jewellery Week.
 
Students
The school is the perfect place to cultivate your personal and human development.
Over the years, hundreds of students of all ages and from every part of the world have attended our school.
 
The school selects 60 new candidates every year, who come from Italy and Europe and also from the Far East, the Americas, Oceania, the Middle East and Africa.
 
The professional but at the same time familial atmosphere of the school, with a community made up of students of different ages and with various years of study, welcomes the newly enrolled and helps them to settle quickly into their new environment, comprising study and application, and with a lovely multicultural and multi-ethnic element. A meeting of different cultures and traditions that creates the best foundations for a profitable period of study and for the beginning of lasting friendships.

Scholarships
For very many years LAO has pursued a policy of awarding many scholarships, both to Italian and foreign students. Scholarships can be total (cover 100% of the fees), or 50%.
 
Since 2021, a scholarship named after Maria Cristina Bergesio has also been established.
 
Beginning in 2022, scholarships have been established in collaboration with "THE PLACE OF WONDERS," a Corporate Social Responsibility project created by the Babini family-historical owners of the iconic Boutique Hotel THE PLACE Florence-which intends to invest in the growth of the culture of manufacturing arts and in the training of new recruits of professionals in the sector, accompanying them in their insertion and supporting them in not dispersing that artisanal culture and character of uniqueness that have made Florence the capital of beauty and know-how. TPOW provides for the awarding of 3 scholarships of at least two years' duration


Some artists, designers, teachers, and companies, with which the school had or have cooperation for lecturers, long-term courses, workshops, exhibitions, projects.
 
Artists, designers, teachers, lecturers
Erhard Brepohl, Gilles Joneman, Sabine Strobel, Monika Brugger, Maria Grazia Rodi, Ruggero Sandini, Maria Rosa Franzin, Claudia Hoppe, Svenja John, Susanne Klemm, Ralph Stautner, Terhi Tolvanen, Barbara Uderzo, Felieke Van Der Leest, Diana Dudek, Helfried Kodrè, Carla Riccoboni, Graziano Visintin, Peter Chang, Giovanni Corvaja, Nel Linssen, Kadri Mälk, Xavier Monclús, Erico Nagai, Francesco Pavan, Jacqueline Ryan, Peter Skubic, Janna Syvänoja, Annamaria Zanella, Friedrich Becker, Bruno Martinazzi, Gerd Rothmann, Gijs Bakker, Christoph Zellweger, Frédéric Braham, Ruudt Peters, Naomi Filmer, David Watkins, Marjorie Schick, Naom Ben–Jacov, Giampaolo Babetto, Vera Siemund, Stefano Marchetti, Ramón Puig Cuyàs, Mari Ishikawa, Eija Mustonen, Jivan Astfalck, Mah Rana, Katja Prins, Tanel Veenre, Ted Noten, Mario Pinton, Yasuki Hiramatsu, Graziano Visintin, Robert Baines, Georg W. Dobler, Annelies Planteijdt, Karl Fritsch, Svenja John, David Bielander, Lisa Walker, Sally Marsland, Sebastian Buescher, Mari Ishikawa, Renzo Pasquale, Helen Britton, Johamma Dahm, Andi Gut, Ruudt Peters, Evert Nijland, Sigurd Bronger, Sophie Hanagarth, Suska Mackert, Philip Sajet, Karin Seufert, Philip Sajet, Mimì Moscow, Nora Fok, Bifei Cao, Wang Zhenghong, Wang Kezhen, Sang Deok Han, Jie Sun, Tithi Kutchamuch, Seoyeon Lee, Daniela Hedman, Arata Fuchi, Sibylle Umlauf, Tasso Mattar, Danni Schwaag, Erik Tidäng, Lena Jerström, Tobias Birgersson, Klara Eriksson, Petronella Eriksson, Pernilla Sylwan, Jayne Wallace, Anya Kivarkis, Ana Rajcevic, Conversation piece, Lauren Kalman, Roberta Bernabei, Rein Vollenga, Barbara Paganin, Kazumi Nagano, Sam Tho Duong, Manfred Bischoff, Maria Cristina Bergesio, Barbara Schmidt, David Loepp, Maria Laura La Mantia, Shruti  Agrawal Inger Wästberg, Petra Hölscher, Martina Dempf, Kevin Murray, Roberta Bernabei; Robert Baines, David Loepp, Maria Laura La Mantia, Shruti Agrawal, Tasso Mattar, Shannon Guo, Gabriele Goretti, Dora Liscia Bemporad, Ellen Maurer Zilioli; Ornella Casazza, Antonella Capitanio, Christel Trinborn, Vittorio Romiti, Federica Fontana, Paola Stroppiana, Nantia Koulidou, Alice Rendon, Chiara Scarpitti, Francesco Bravin, Alessandrfa Menegotto, Sally Collins, Eva Franceschini, Sina Emrich, Fuchi Arata, Daniela Hedman, Mirjam Hiller, Vaishali Ashok Morjaria, Kathryn Partington, Claudia Rinneberg, Sonja Christine Seidl, Julia Walter, Daniel Di Caprio, Estela Vilanova Saez, Lisa Grassivaro, Nora Rochel, Pia Pasalk, Sharon Massey, Taisuke Nakada, Tamsin Leighton-Boyce, Melissa Cameron, Eve Cheryl, Yoshie Enda, Adam Grinovich, Monica Haneckova, Erin Keys, Sooyeon Kim, Sachiko Shouji, Sam Hamilton, Hanna Hedman, Lisa Juen, Heejoo Kim, Seul-Gi Kwon, Marie Pendariès, Elena Ruebel, Wan Hee Cho, Rob Elford, Benedikt Fischer, Panjapol Kulpapangkorn, Chiara Scarpitti, Antje Stolz, Lauren Vanessa Tickle, Sang Deok Han, Jie Sun, Tithi Kutchamuch, Seoyeon Lee, Fang Jin Yeh, Qian Wang, Shachar Cohen, Xiaodai Huang, Yajie Hu, Koen Jacobs, Jongseok Lim, Xinia Guan, Charlotte Vanhoubroeck, Zhipeng Wang, Anne Lahn Hornbæk Hansen, Pilynn Siriphanich.
 
Companies
Ferragamo, Prada, Enrico Coveri, Roberto Cavalli, Roberto Coin, The Robert Mazlo Endowment fund, Paris, F.lli Peruzzi, Firenze, Salimbeni Firenze, Freschi e Vangelisti, Arezzo, Swarovski, Wattens, Austria, Ganjam Nagappa & Son, Bangalore, India, Meli Gioielli, Firenze, TREEMME, Arezzo, Gabriella Garzi, Arezzo, La Nouvelle Bague, Firenze, Ponte Vecchio Gioielli, Firenze, Torrini Firenze, Signity, Svizzera, Auritalia, Vicenza, ARTEX, OMA - Observatory of the Crafts of Art.

Acknowledgments
2010 Tuscany’s Silver Banner, led by the president of the Tuscany Regional Council
2013 Gold Medal for the organization of PREZIOSA exhibition, led by the head of the State, Mr. Napolitano.
2017 Giò Carbone, LAO- Le Arti Orafe Director, had been awarded with the David Prize 2017. This prize is given to people who used to stand out for engagement in the world of jewellery culture and the artist Tasso Mattar wanted to deliver it by his own hands.