Tesori di Carta

In the heart of the historical centre of Francavilla Fontana, a few steps from the highest dome in Salento (Chiesa Matrice), you will find the famous papier-mâché workshop "Tesori di cartapesta". You will be amazed by the many material properties of paper, its ability and resistance to be used as an effective working element to give life to wonderful handicrafts. Following an ancient tradition, the Balsamo workshop creates sacred figures and popular representations in papier-mâché, following the traditional procedure for a complex of images that are a living expression of the culture of the territory. You will be fascinated by the exceptional skill of the craftsmen, who observe in the smallest steps a process of great interest and complexity: the statue is built from a specially made dummy around an iron core, lined with a layer of straw and held in place by a string. A head, hands and feet in terracotta are added to this construction for small-scale productions, as opposed to papier-mâché for larger ones. The mannequin is then dressed in paper soaked in flour glue. After drying, the statue is focused (focheggiare) with red-hot irons, an ancient process that smoothes, removes imperfections and accentuates qualities. The statue is then plastered and painted with oil colours.