Pietra Dura artist Thomas Greenaway

Thomas and I first worked together on the Making of the Tomb for King Richard III in 2014/15 for Master Stonemason, James Elliott. I was lucky enough to visit Thomas at his studio in Northamptonshire while he was in the middle of making the Pietra Dura Coat of Arms shield for the tomb’s plinth at Leicester Cathedral. For all of us involved, this was a once-in-a-lifetime project.

I was approached by Thomas to create a new website, series of photographs for press use and a film to help him promote his work.

After many discussions about how we might structure the new website, we decided to focus on Thomas’ personal story – sharing with his audience how he became one of only a handful of people to master the 16th-century Florentine technique of Pietra Dura. In fact, he is the only master craftsman of Pietra Dura in the UK.

We thought it was important to demonstrate his rare skill – alongside the amazing pieces he has made throughout his career.

Over the course of a year I visited Thomas at his studio to photograph and film him at key moments during his work. This produced a series of images and short films which we used in the making of the website. Alongside his existing product photography, I shot some additional images of his work. The site design was deliberately clean in style and layout, and visually compelling to draw in an audience.  

Denny Einav created new copy and reshaped existing text by working closely with Thomas to tell his story. Denny’s writing helped unify the tone of voice, while increasing web traffic through search engine optimisation.

I wanted to create a series of images and films that capture the detail, movement and colour of Thomas’ work. These were key in bringing the website to life and helping show Thomas at work in his natural environment. This creates the feeling of being right there with him in his studio.

"Alex is a rare find and a truly gifted artist. I instantly felt at ease working together and was particularly struck by the length of time he devoted to understanding the complex processes of my specialised craft, as well as getting to know my personality and perspective, which helped tell an honest story behind my work. I cannot highly recommend Alex enough for his professionalism and talent."

Thomas Greenaway

Credits

Thomas Greenaway – Pietra Dura Artist
Denny Einav – Copywriter and Editor
Alex J. Wright – Filmmaking, photography, and website design and build