Marble inlay, like other crafts, needs highly specialised workers, able to combine technical skill which needs a long apprenticeship , aesthetic sensitivity and the will to make a work which must always be unique. Today, machines such as hydro-jets are often used, speeding up the job at the expense of quality. In Pietrasanta, however, you can still find people who produce inlay by hand, taking the extra care needed to achieve an inimitable product. Materials are always chosen with the greatest care, and the beauty and nobility of hard and semiprecious stones blends in with the many colours of marble. Materials alone would mean little, if they were not cut and finished the way the artist wants, and then inlaid and glued in so accurately as to make it impossible to identify the joint between the various elements. The slow process of inlay allows one to gradually see drawings of figures, flowers and architectural elements take shape as floors, tables, decoration and even as reproductions of famous paintings.
The architect, the designer or the artist who wants to make use of the skills of these craftsmen will find that their creativeness has few limits indeed. They use all their imagination to conjure up the most difficult designs; unlimited by the restrictions of machines since the work is done almost entirely by hand. This is precisely why works made in Pietrasanta by these extraordinary craftsmen are present in some of the most prestigious places in the world.