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We are all artisans!
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Every year, a hundred young people arrive in Loppiano to participate in the various “schools” that have their headquarters here. They receive comprehensive training and develop knowledge of various subjects. Being able to live together, then, they enlarge the dimension of their heart and the ability to welcome each other, while in work they transform their talents into something concrete.
The doctor who finishes the figures at the Centro Ave Ceramica, the firefighter who sends Fantasy’s orders … and many other professionals who, during the training period spent in the citadel, leave “their fields” and engage in the work of the small companies in Loppiano – the source of sustainability of their stay here.
It is not always a simple experience, because in any case it requires you to learn completely unknown things and get out of your professional comfort zone.
We take a tour of various production companies in Loppiano and meet the young people who work there. They will tell us what makes them feel artisans.
There can be many ways to do something, all valid if they lead to good results.
Martin, Argentine, firefighter by profession.
His first job in Loppiano was maintenance. Now Martin is a warehouse worker at Fantasy Loppiano and here’s what he tells us about his work: “I learned not only practical things (packaging, labelling, relationship with the courier), but also to have the humility to understand that, behind to the ways of doing things (different from mine), there is a whole life experience of the people who worked here before me. And this is why it is important to listen to and follow each other’s suggestions with a great attention”.
There may be few or many resources, but the skill of an artisan lies in not wasting anything.
The importance of patience
If the young people who come to Loppiano are to learn new jobs, there must be someone to teach them. And the common denominator of all work experiences in Loppiano is PATIENCE. It takes patience for those who learn and for those who teach. Making mistakes is an integral part of the creation process, but Nico, from Ecuador (cook by profession) confirms: “At Azur Artigianato I learned that with patience and a little practice you can learn many things”. Wislaine, originally from Haiti, engineer in agronomy, also speaks of patience and delicacy, and adds: “To create something beautiful (she works in the laboratories of Centro Ave Ceramica) I learned to be silent”.
I am in what I create!
Sofia, the doctor from Argentina, working at the Centro Ave Ceramica, was able to learn about all the steps in the production chain. She feels as she was the earth shaped by God when she pours the liquid clay into the molds; she sees the beauty of the process of finishing: “by delicately removing what ‘is wrong’ I can contribute so that the figurine in my hands can become more of itself (Mary more Mary, Joseph more Joseph, etc.)”. And she adds: “If I can do it with statuettes, how much more is this dynamic valid for everyday life?” Then, when she is the one to “sponge” the ceramic figurines, she discovers the beauty (and the importance) of “roughness”, – it is precisely the characteristic that distinguishes Centro Ave Ceramica products from others on the market -. Sofia, also in this part of the process, finds similarities with everyday life: “showing my ‘roughness’ is not bad, it’s beautiful, because my limits are part of me! By accepting them, I can bring out the qualities that I had no idea before”.
Are we all artisans?
If with patience and delicacy we manage to make the little or much we have available to bear fruit, if every fruit of our work contains a piece of us, then yes, we are all artisans. Because whoever is faithful in little is also faithful in much (cf. Lk 16:10).