The Bottle & Wooden box Gallery
Valstrona, a small valley located a few kilometers west of lake Orta in piemont, northern italy. The valley is famous for producing fine traditional wood products from beech, oak and cherry wood . Here is where the boxes are hand crafted.
The carpenters workshop, located in the middle of the village, is in a house from the 18th century. When they are not manufacturing boxes for us they produce a large variety of very fine and high quality household items out of different types of indigenous and locally grown woods such as cherry, oak and beechwood. When entering the tiny village you can see the nearly stacked towers of chopped wood drying in the mountain air.
The sides are stacked uniformly and pushed manually into the band saw.
The same principle is used for both the top and bottom slats.
The stainless steel labels are laser cut by a local surgical instrument company. Before they are gold plated the burr is removed by brushing both sides.
Great view from main assembly table. Even though the workshop is equipped with a industrial air conditioner the windows are nearly always left wide open. There is nothing like fresh mountain air to keep you awake.
The finished boxes before the inlay is fixed and glued. This procedure is carried out in our assembly hall in Germany. After the wooden boxes are manufactured in Italy they are individually wrapped to avoid any dents or scratching that might occur on the long and occasionally bumpy journey. Both the top and bottom box inlays are cut by a local German company and after being folded to fit in the Box are covered with black satin and individually glued in place.