Florentine Furniture Painting

The traditional Florentine methods for decorating furniture and cabinetry and the work of Alison Woolley, of FlorenceArt.net in Florence, Italy

hand-painted dresser by Alison Woolley of FlorenceArt.net

The techniques used and taught by Alison Woolley of FlorenceArt.net come from the historical tradition of decorators working in the artisan district of Florence, Italy. This craft developed its many rich facets over many centuries, starting with the decoration for churches and altar panels in the 13th century and continuing on to the present day.   Decorators perfected techniques for decorating wooden surfaces, gilding them and coloring them with a rich variety of designs and finishes. The Florentine techniques are useful for creating some very special accent furniture pieces, cabinetry, or unique art panels.
 If you want to learn how to restore antiques, or do conservation or decoration work for old houses, it's best to start with learning about how they were created originally.

delicate details in a well worn painted dresser by Alison Woolley

In addition to painted finishes, Alison excels at gilding and the traditional methods of gilt furniture decoration, traditional water gilding techniques and decorative techniques for gilded surfaces.  Alison teaches these traditional methods in classes at her studio in Florence, Italy.

~ Design and transfer techniques for historical styles of ornament
~ Techniques for decorating wooden frames, furniture, and cabinetry using traditional materials such as casein, gesso, bole, varnish, and wax.
~ Historic painting techniques for creating Italian and French country style painted  furniture
~ Techniques used in restoration of antique furniture and frames
~ Antiquing and patina techniques for creating a genuine, softly aged finish.
~ Traditional water gilding, punchwork, sgraffito, and other decorative gilding techniques

A hand-painted kitchen hutch by Alsion Woolley of FlorenceArt.net

Sgraffito and gilding samples by Alison Woolley of FlorenceArt.net

Alison Woolley

Alison Woolley has been a practicing artisan in Florence for  over 25 years. She developed her craft working for many years in several well known botteghe or workshops of Florence, before opening  her own studio and is now widely know for her level of craft, with an international clientele and hundreds of students from all over the world.

You may see more of her work and a schedule of classes at her website FlorenceArt.net

We hope to host Alison at Lynne Rutter studio soon.