I met him a few years ago. He had his workshop outdoors, under the Aurelian Walls, in the center of Rome. He created his silver jewels sitting at a small bench, full of things and tools of every kind. Metal files, molds, mills, sand paper. He was in his fifties, sported a long, messy beard and only wore flannel shirts.
This was Vincent, as he said his name was. A street goldsmith.
He was very kind, gentle. A phenomenal artist, yet a humble man, so that in the neighborhood they started to call him Lord Vincent.
He used to craft no more than two or three jewels every week, all were hand-crafted unique pieces, all were sold even before he started to work on them.
One day, I approached him, I stopped to watch him working and he didn’t seem to notice me. He was sculpting a human face on a ring, slowly, quietly.
“This is the husband of an old lady living in the suburbs. He passed away two months ago and she wants to wear him every day.”
He spoke with an American accent in a quiet tone, but it was clear that he didn’t love to talk much. And he didn’t love to talk about himself at all. Nobody knew where he exactly came from nor if he had a place to sleep. Certainly, his bench was always there, day and night, and many started to suppose that he used to sleep somewhere nearby. Or maybe he didn’t sleep at all.
After a few weeks, people started to come over from everywhere to get one of his pieces. But he only accepted a few requests, mostly from people he liked for mysterious reasons. For the rest, he just crafted the pieces he wanted to craft, without any kind of influence.
Then, one day, he vanished with all his stuff, and no one ever heard of him again.
No one, except me. I don’t know how he got my address, but a few days after his disappearamce, I found a gift from him in my mailbox. A silver ring and a letter. He wrote that he saw something in my eyes, he noticed I was mesmerized by his work, and invited me to try to take his legacy. He also added something else that I won’t reveal at the moment.
I started to offer the first jewels on lovekills.eu and I’m glad a lot of people appreciate them. But now, I passed to the next level.
Today, Lord Vincent lives again here.
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