Welcome 2023

These photos will be 10 years old soon! Thicker fringes, smoother skin... well, those things that show how time flies. They also remind us of the deep love we had for the Workshop back then. We talked about nothing else, we thought about nothing else. Be it Saturday, Sunday, at any time, that's where we wanted to be.

Pepa lamp and aprons for Taberna Laperica, 2015

There was a factor that gave us an incredible desire to work, which was having no idea where all of this could lead us, and on the other hand, there was the sharp tension of thinking that it might not be a viable venture and that the dream would end someday. Little by little, we realized that the viability of the Workshop wasn't hanging by a thread; we strengthened it and learned to live with the ups and downs of being self-employed.

Vanity tables for Coletta Hair Salon, 2013

Looking at the photos also clearly reminds us of what we were looking for. The objective of that sharp turn in our career, which was focusing on craftsmanship, is summarized in this quote:

"We wanted to believe that a world still exists beyond that matrix of dependence and captivity, a difficult but pure reality hidden beneath the comfortable but rotten dream of modern life"*

Hecla showroom, 2013

We didn't want to conquer the industrial world. We understood that dedicating ourselves to craftsmanship was not the path to becoming the new Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford. We just wanted to work on something that excited us and where it was worth spending all the hours it takes to put food on the table.

An afternoon at the workshop, 2015

And it's good to remember this because, in some way, it makes us feel like we're on the right track; it makes us feel, for a minute, something like "successful," which has become practically impossible in the Instagram era where the levels of success we see daily are astronomical.

This year, we were invited to a conference on Design, Art, and Craftsmanship and were introduced as a "success story." We quickly looked at each other as if to say, "Are they talking about us?" And we had to address the topic during the presentation, as it's important to clarify what "being successful" truly means. In the Instagram era, if you tell someone "that guy is successful," they can rightly expect him to have 50 employees and drive home in a Porsche 911. Ultimately, we agreed that, in our case, simply persevering, keeping going, is a strong factor of success in itself.

Pattern Headboard, 2014

We are taking firmer steps, we are reducing anxiety, and we are learning to live on unstable ground. We want to do things better and better, and our backpack is always filled with new ideas and systems to implement. So we welcome 2023 animated and knowing that we are heading in the direction we set from the beginning.

We take this opportunity to wish you a good year and to thank all of you who, with your trust, make Taller Piccolo possible.

Photo during the filming of our Domestika course, 2022*

*HYDEN, Steven, "Radiohead's Kid A and the Beginning of the 21st Century", Ed. Hiria Liburuak, S.L., 2022

*Last photo: Domestika