Made in Italy? Not for much longer

Italy is renowned for its artisans. They create unique masterpieces by hand, even in an age in which most products are mass-produced. But these artisans and their work are at risk of disappearing. 34-year-old Negar Azhar Azari had many doors shut in her face before she finally found an apprenticeship to study etching and jewelry.

Negar Azhar Azari's studio showcases etched pieces that she created using the pictured Florentine etching tools called "bollini." She learned many techniques during her apprenticeship with master craftsman, Giuliano Ricchi, and is proud to participate in centuries of tradition. But more help from public or private investors is needed for other young people to follow in Azari's footsteps.

A machine in craftsman Giuliano Ricchi's workshop stamps a hand-etched design onto brass. The brass plates are transformed into pillboxes, business card holders or other small, elegant containers. Sadly, Ricchi is one of the last "Michaelangelo's of the manual arts" as Italians just aren't learning crafts anymore. It can take a month to craft a plate like this, something that is not valued today.

These scissors date back at least 40 years and are an essential tool of tailor Paola Gueli. She inherited them from her father, a retired tailor who once had 30 employees. In the 1950s, when her father launched his career, Italy was home to over four million tailors. Today this figure has plummeted to 700,000, putting part of Italy's artistic heritage at risk of extinction.

Despite a century of combined experience, tailors Paola Gueli and her father, Raffaele, have an uncertain future. Today, one in five tailoring jobs goes unfilled, despite record unemployment. Many learning the trade in Rome's tailoring academies dream of being designers rather than just simple tailors. But this disregards the art of tailoring itself, say Paola and Raffaele.

"Italy would lose enormous hands" says Paola Gueli, "mine are small, but in the end, they're enormous too. Unfortunately we're not valued. Actually, we are ignored." Gueli says the state and artisans associations don't provide sufficient support to tailors such as loans, assistance and workers. Her hands work cloth with a finesse which it's impossible to achieve with most sewing machines.

Baking is considered an artisan skill, but traditional bakers in Sicily have more to worry about than just the loss of their craft. They have to contend with the mafia, too. But the D'Aloisi family Michele D'Aloisi, son Francesco D'Aloisi and father Francesco "Franco" D'Aloisi (L to R), refused to bow to pressure to alter their products, prompting the criminals to set fire to their bakery.

At Il Fornaio bakery, Michele D’Aloisi carefully sprinkes sesame seeds on every loaf. Artisan bakeries are closing in Sicily, victims of the crisis, mafia extortion and the trend to buy industrial bread from supermarkets. But the artisan bakers are ever hopeful, that like their bread, their trade will rise again and new life will be given to Italy's struggling artisans.