Emilia Tombolesi is a London-based designer whose practice is rooted in hands-on material exploration and sculptural making. Her work engages directly with industrial materials such as aluminium and jesmonite, pushing their physical and aesthetic boundaries through tactile experimentation. Emilia creates objects that are expressive and elemental, shaped by intuition, repetition, and the unpredictable nature of process.
Originally from Italy, Emilia draws inspiration from her Sicilian heritage and the raw, volcanic landscapes that define the island. Her most recent series, ETNA, channels this connection to land and energy. The collection combines hand-hammered aluminium with pigmented jesmonite, using metal sheets as both form and mould. The result is a monolithic, textural piece celebrating material tension, weight, and surface irregularity.
Rather than smoothing away imperfections, Emilia embraces marks left by tools, gravity, and casting. Her objects carry visible traces of their making — cracks, bubbles, and seams that speak to the physical relationship between maker and material. Each piece sits between sculpture and design: functional in intention, but unapologetically raw in appearance.
Emilia’s process is iterative and experimental, often led by the limitations and quirks of the materials she works with. She considers production not replication but discovery—a way to find new forms through small shifts in method, pressure, or proportion.
