L'ARTE DI CREARE

GoldsmithingPistoiaPracchia, Pistoia

L'ARTE DI CREARE

The L'ARTE DI CREARE stall at a market: displays crowded with necklaces, bracelets and earrings in coloured stones, each with its price tag.

When her husband's goldsmith workshop closed, the semi-precious stones nobody had set were left behind. Antonella began setting them herself, in the evenings, with no market and no plan. Sixteen years later those stones have a shop, and two people keep it: her and her daughter Cristina.

Since 2012, mother and daughter · semi-precious stones, pearls, crystals and glass · from the market stalls of Pracchia to the shop in Porretta Terme

2012The year of the business
2The hands that run it
2010The first stall, at Pracchia
2026The year of the shop

The stones nobody had set

L'ARTE DI CREARE is a two-person business: Antonella Dondoli and her daughter Cristina. They make costume jewellery from semi-precious stones, pearls, crystals and glass. The shop is at Piazza Vittorio Veneto 1, in Porretta Terme, and it opened in May 2026. Behind that shop lie sixteen years of market stalls, and before them a box of stones nobody used any more.

A workshop that closes

Antonella's husband is a goldsmith, from a family of goldsmiths going back generations. When he closes the business, the semi-precious stones stay behind in the workshop: the ones that were there to be set and never were.

Antonella works in an office. In her spare time she starts setting them herself, with no plan and no market. She makes a few pieces and wears them: dinners, weddings, drinks. Her friends ask her where she bought them; she answers that she made them. The first made-to-measure requests come from there.

A parure of necklace and earrings in red coral and black stones on a jute display, next to the L'arte di creare card.
Red coral and black stones. The first official sale was a parure like this one — bracelet, necklace and earrings — made from the stones left in the workshop.

Carnelian from Madagascar

The first official sale is a parure — bracelet, necklace and earrings — in Madagascar carnelian, still from the workshop stones. Her daughter wears it to school, for a classmate's birthday. The whole class likes it.

It is the smallest of details and it already says how this craft works: word of mouth starts with an object someone wears in front of other people.

A small table, two chairs, a case

Summer 2010. The Pro Loco of Pracchia, a mountain village above Porretta Terme, invites Antonella to an event. She sets off with a small table, a tablecloth, two chairs and a case of creations, expecting nothing. She sells.

She works the markets all summer on a hobbyist permit, the one that allows occasional sales. In the autumn come the twenty days of the Christmas market, this time with her daughter on the stall: sales beat expectations and the first regular customers appear — the ones who come back the following year already knowing what to look for.

Five long necklaces laid out on a wooden surface, each in stones of a different colour: jade green, haematite grey, midnight blue.
Five long necklaces, one for each stone. This is how the work presents itself on the stall: not one piece at a time, but a range to be taken in all at once.

In 2012 it becomes a business

2011 is a pause until the summer, then weekend markets again, with takings on the rise. In March 2012 Antonella opens a VAT number and the firm L'ARTE DI CREARE is born, registered with the Camera di Commercio (the Chamber of Commerce) on 15 March.

The scale of what is possible changes: from there, access to the trade fairs and industry events — MIDA among them — to the specialised exhibition bodies, to the trade associations. The little table at Pracchia becomes a stand.

What comes out of their hands

Semi-precious stones, pearls, crystals and glass. Every piece is set by hand, and hardly any of them exists in more than one example.

Six oval pendants on suede cord, lined up on a wooden surface: midnight blue, mustard, coral, black, white and grey.
Six pendants on suede cord. Same shape, six different stones: this is how a range is built without repeating itself.
A pair of earrings with a blue resin rose on a pierced gold stud, resting on a log beside the workshop's card.
A rose in blue resin on an openwork gilded stud. The tag with the business name goes with every piece, on the stall as in the shop.
Earrings with an ivory-white resin rose on an engraved silver stud, on a log with the L'arte di creare card.
The same rose in ivory, on an engraved silver stud. Two examples of the same model are never identical: the resin is coloured by hand.
01

Necklaces

Long, single-strand or multi-strand, with the stone deciding the colour of the whole piece. They are the most recognisable family on the stall.

02

Earrings

Drop and stud, in stone, resin and metal. This is the category where the variants gather: same model, five different colours.

03

Bracelets

Elasticated, strung or rigid. This is where personalisation comes in: letter beads spelling out a name, and the piece belongs to one person alone.

04

Pendants

On suede cord or on a chain, with the stone left in full view. These are the pieces worn every day, the ones that ask for no occasion.

05

Parure

Necklace, bracelet and earrings conceived together. It was a parure that started everything, and it remains the form a gift takes.

06

Made to measure

The piece that does not exist yet: you choose the stone, you decide the length, it gets set. It starts from a conversation, not from a shelf.

A stone is explained, not just sold

Beside many of the pieces there is a small card that tells you about the stone: what it is, what is attributed to it, why someone chooses it. It is how this workshop tells the customer what they are holding.

A necklace in black onyx and white pearls with its matching earrings, beside the card explaining the properties of onyx.
Black onyx and pearls. Beside them, the card explaining their properties: the profile the business writes for every stone it uses.

Cristina and the new line

During the pandemic the stalls stop. It is Cristina who moves the work elsewhere: she opens the Instagram page, starts posting, and designs a more modern line, aimed at a younger audience than the markets bring in.

Online selling starts slowly — very few pieces a month — but it starts. It is the first channel that does not depend on someone walking past a stall.

A drop earring being worn: a round gold stud, a hand-worked silver spiral and a faceted black stone drop.
A round gilded stud, a hand-worked silver spiral, a drop of black stone. A piece makes sense once it is on someone.
A personalised bracelet with letter beads spelling a name and a gold charm, worn on a child's wrist.
Letter beads spelling out a name. This is the part of the work that cannot be done in batches: it is set for one person alone.

Who is behind it

Two people, no employees, two paths that crossed at the stall.

Antonella Dondoli

Owner. She began by setting the stones left in the workshop of her goldsmith husband, while working in an office. At the end of 2021 she retires and for the first time is on the business every day.

Cristina Ulivi

The daughter. On the stall since the Christmas market of 2010. During the pandemic she opens the Instagram page and designs the younger line. In 2023 she leaves her permanent job to work on the business.

The road so far

May 2026

The shop

It opens at Piazza Vittorio Veneto 1, in Porretta Terme. From a stall that goes up and comes down to a shutter that rolls up every day in the same place.

2023

Cristina leaves her permanent job

From that moment they are a family business: two people, one craft, no other salary covering their backs.

2021

Antonella retires

She leaves the office and for the first time devotes every day to the business.

2020

Instagram and the new line

The stalls stop. Cristina opens the page, posts, designs a more modern line, and online selling begins.

March 2012

The business is born

VAT number and registration with the Camera di Commercio on 15 March. From there, trade fairs and industry events, MIDA among them.

Autumn 2010

Twenty days of Christmas market

With her daughter on the stall. Sales beat expectations and the first regular customers appear.

Summer 2010

Pracchia

A small table, a tablecloth, two chairs and a case of creations, at the Pro Loco event. It is the first stall.

About twenty years ago

The workshop stones

Her goldsmith husband closes the business. The unset semi-precious stones remain, and Antonella starts setting them.

Where to find it

A permanent shop and the stalls. Two different ways of meeting the same creations.

Inside the shop in Porretta Terme: a jute display bust with a necklace of blue and gold stones, matching earrings and flowers behind.
Inside the shop in Porretta Terme: the jute display busts, the flowers, and the range laid out to be looked at close up.

The shop

Piazza Vittorio Veneto 1, Porretta Terme. Open since May 2026. It is the place where the whole range can be seen together and where a made-to-measure piece is ordered.

The stalls

Markets and fairs in Tuscany and beyond: among them Fantasy & Hobby in Genova, the Christmas market at the Centro Vittoria in San Donato in Firenze, the stalls at Parco Prato and the market at the Santissima Annunziata.

Contact details

Address
Piazza Vittorio Veneto 1
40046 Alto Reno Terme (BO) — Porretta Terme
Phone
333 124 9239

Questions

Which stones do they use?

Hard and semi-precious stones, pearls, crystals and glass. The first of them came from the workshop of Antonella's husband, a goldsmith: coral, carnelian, onyx, turquoise and aquamarine among others.

Are the pieces unique?

Almost all of them. Some models exist in several colours, but the setting is done by hand and two examples never come out identical. Made-to-measure work is agreed directly with the workshop.

Can a piece be personalised?

Yes. Bracelets with letter beads are the most requested form, and on the stall some resin earrings are personalised on the spot.

What is the card that comes with the stone?

A profile explaining what the stone is and what is attributed to it — onyx, aquamarine, turquoise. It is there to let the buyer know what they are holding.

How long has the business existed?

The firm dates from March 2012, registered with the Camera di Commercio on 15 March. But the first stall is from the summer of 2010, at Pracchia, and the first creations from some years before that.

Who works there?

Two people: Antonella Dondoli and her daughter Cristina Ulivi. No employees.

The pieces are on Tuscany Market Hub

Here we tell who makes them and where they started from. There is the catalogue: every piece with its own page, its stone and its dimensions. And the piece that does not exist yet — the one made to measure — begins with a word to the workshop.

The business

Business name
L'ARTE DI CREARE
Registered name
L'Arte di Creare di Dondoli Antonella
Owner
Antonella Dondoli
Shop
Piazza Vittorio Veneto 1 · Porretta Terme
Active since
2012 · registered with the Camera di Commercio on 15 March
Craft
Handmade costume jewellery · semi-precious stones, pearls, crystals and glass
Who works there
Antonella Dondoli and Cristina Ulivi
Contacts
333 124 9239 · Instagram @l.arte_di_creare

This profile is part of the archive for Goldsmithing. All the producers in the network.