“Rough Cast” explores the mould as an experimental prototype. During the workshop, participants build a single-use mould from reclaimed packaging waste to cast a unique candle holder in fast-setting cement.
Normally, the mould is the most expensive and permanent element of a casting process. This workshop reverses that logic: the mould is rough, hand-cut, and designed to be dismantled after single use. Yet, it still performs the singular mission of a mould: determining the final form of the object—a wall’s height, a fold’s angle, or even a tiny gap in the join is permanently recorded in the cement cast.
The workshop transforms the mould into a vehicle for testing ideas. Through making and testing, participants learn from their results and try again. After completing their first object, participants use their observations to construct the second mould, allowing themselves to make something “better”. This new, unused mould is taken home for future exploration.
The core experience lies in mould-making rather than surface decoration, accumulating knowledge through hands-on making, testing, and learning from failure. Every participant leaves with one unrepeatable cement candle holder, a brand-new unused mould, and a craft technique they can repeat anytime using discarded packaging.
Founded in 2020 by designer Nicolau dos Santos and art director Stephanie Blanchard, IAMMI is an Italy-based studio operating at the intersection of the classic and the contemporary. “Where timeless ideas find their home” is more than a motto: it reflects an approach rooted in meaning rather than surface, where storytelling shapes form, and modern manufacturing techniques meet traditional craftsmanship.
Working across products, collectible items, spatial design, installations, art direction, and consultancy, IAMMI develops original research alongside commissioned projects for brands, institutions, and private clients. Guided by a distinctive visual language that balances irony, intuition, and discipline, the studio challenges conventions through unexpected combinations, creating work that is both authored and tangible, where tradition is reinterpreted with emotional depth and contemporary relevance.