Roberto Di Martino - Collectors Cabinets
Using skills built through a professional practice of jewellery, knife-making, wood design and metal crafts, I completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Honours in Furniture Design at the University of Tasmania in 2008.
Working from a home studio, I undertake commissions for collector’s cabinets, a growing niche market in Australia. Working closely with clients, I design and build boxes and cabinets to hold specific collections of objects, such as watches, cameras, scientific instruments, dolls, china, etc.
Like the Wunderkammer (cabinets of curiosities) commissioned by connoisseurs of collecting during the Victorian era, these cabinets open to reveal the private and precious worlds of their owners.
Each cabinet is designed individually and all materials are archival quality and built for atmospheric stability and endurance. Security and lighting can be incorporated to enhance and display the objects within, while keeping them secure and under ideal conditions.
Collections are about wonder, reverence, containment and recollection and they deserve to be housed in purpose-built cabinets. My cabinets are as unique as the collections they contain and I always aim to have them speak of their owners’ lives and passions.
The classical forms and lines of Roberto’s cabinetmaking work influence other aspects of his practice as well. Reclining lounges with or without bolsters can be ordered, along with other individual commissions. Roberto received Excellence in Furniture Design and Excellence in Jewellery Design awards from TAFE and was awarded the Best Kitchen and Best Utility Knife Awards at the Australian Knifemakers’ Exhibition in Melbourne.
