Exedra - Italian Baroque Furniture Manufacturer

While photographing Riccado and his brother in their workshop Sicilia Intarsi, Riccardo offered to take me to visit Exedra, a family-owned baroque style furniture maker the next day.   Baroque furniture is an old style that came out of the Baroque era from the 1700 to 1800's.  It's a furniture style preserved by Exedra in the shadow of Mt. Etna in Belpasso, Italy.  Though much of the process is automated, the detailed carving and upholstery is still done by hand. 

Furniture makers carve the intricate baroque details on pieces of wood that will be used to make a chair.

Wood carving tools and shavings on a workbench in the Exedra workshop.

Furniture makers at their individual workbenches work on carving and shaping pieces of a baroque chair.

A furniture maker works on carving out the find details of a baroque chair at his workbench.

After details are carved out, the pieces are sanded and buffed using a rotary sander made of strips of cotton and sandpaper.

A baroque chair leg is sanded smooth with a handheld rotary sander.    Much time is sent to get the finish just right.

Assembled chair backs are glued and clamped together awaiting further assembly.

Chair backs are fitted with additional embellishment by a factory worker taking great pains to insure a perfect fit.

Assembled and painted chair frames waiting to be upholstered.

Upholsterer cuts fabric by hand the fabric that will be used to cover a chair.

Sewing and final touches of the upholstery fabric are done by hand.

Upholstery thread unwinds from it's spindle while the upholster sews the fabric at his sewing machine.

Upholsterer's tool drawer.

Fabric is trimmed after being secured to chair.

Upholsterer secures fabric to chair using a power stapler.

Handmade piping laying in the seat of a chair awaits installation by an upholsterer.