Il Tornitore Matto

Il Tornitore Matto is the brand created by Alberto Alessi with the designer Giulio Iacchetti and presented in 2023 as a laboratory for metal turning. The name comes from the Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland: the point is to reverse contemporary production, shortening the distance between a drawing and an object so that designer and manufacturer can set the rules of the process together.

The pieces are turned from aluminium and steel at Alessi’s works in Crusinallo, near Omegna, by authors including Nika Zupanc, Paolo Ulian, Pierre Charpin, Michael Anastassiades, Michele De Lucchi, Naoto Fukasawa, Andrea Branzi and Federico Angi. Coppa Camuna, a bowl finished by hand in beeswax, states the intent: an archetypal form made by a lathe turner rather than by a factory.