Formed in 1994 by designer Nerio and Festa, festa & co. produces hand-made lighting and accessories that can be seen in top stores and galleries throughout the country. Their distinctive designs are inspired by the twisted vines of the California wine country and incorporate steel and river rocks, giving each piece a rich signature look.

Nerio is a transplant to Sonoma in Northern California, hailing from Italy.  Before launching festa &co., Nerio designed and built furniture and custom interiors for home offices and sailing yachts.  An engineer by training, he is a self confessed "tinkerer" who invents machinery for the company and for various other purposes.

In what he describes as "a very practical joke", one of Nerio's first designs upon moving west was an earthquake resistant candle holder. It was the forerunner of the balancing candleholders which appear in the company's current line in several versions.

Naturally occurring stones, polished smooth by centuries of ocean tides and rivers, are a central element in Nerio's designs.  The idea of using these varied stones in his work grew out of a trip to Encinitas, a storybook beach in Southern California.  He took some stones home, placed them around the living room and began experimenting with "wrapping" them within rusted steel rods from his workshop and transforming them into functional art.  Since then festa &co. has grown to a dozen people who still make one piece at a time with hand-picked stones.

Nature dictates the shape of each piece, and no two are exactly alike.   "It's fun creating them because part of the process is finding the right stones, or asking friends to bring inspirational stones from their travels."

The company's philosophy closely follows it's esthetic, emphasizing minimal environmental impact in the fabrication process.  Most operations are done by hand thus using little energy.  Candle holder cups are a byproduct of car muffler manufacture. No varnishes or toxic chemicals are employed and most of the packing materials are collected from local businesses.

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