Iedde Mussel Knife by Giuliano Ricciardi is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2023 Golden A' Design Award in Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design Competition Category.
GoldKitchenware· 2023
Iedde Mussel Knife
Client: Iedde
Golden A' Design Award Winner in Kitchenware Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #149353The Design
About Iedde Mussel Knife
Iedde is a mussel knife made for shelling mussels. The design is a redesign of the grammella, a traditional tool from Taranto, Italy. The handle is shaped to rest inside the palm of the hand. The blade follows the curve of the grip and joins the base. The curved form holds the tool in the correct position, so the hand does not need to be tilted. The blade is laser cut from stainless steel sheet and hardened in an oven. The handle is made of olive wood. Blade and handle are joined by two pins.
The Recognition
About the Golden A' Design Award
Iedde Mussel Knife is a Golden A' Design Award winner, an immensely prestigious recognition granted to first-rate, marvelous, and outstanding designs. Golden winners are exceedingly innovative, visionary, and glamorously dazzling creations that reflect the prodigy, wisdom, and prowess of their designers. Iedde Mussel Knife is expected to be a highly praised, trendsetting, and monumental invention that delivers unprecedented value. This Golden A' Design Award-winning design is a spectacular, respected project that highly benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Iedde Mussel Knife creates intense feelings of desire, evokes passion, encourages creativity, and fascinates us.
Where to Get It
Professional Product and Furniture Design Services
We transform traditional objects and modern concepts into award-winning designs. Our studio specializes in furniture, kitchenware, and interior projects that blend Italian craftsmanship with innovative functionality. From concept to production, we create products that honor heritage while embracing contemporary life.
Inquire NowInterviews
Design Interview
What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
Taranto, my city, is famous for the production of mussels. This year the Taranto mussel has become a Slow Food presidium and, on the occasion of this recognition, the inspiration was born to design an object that was linked to this typical Taranto product.
What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
Analyzing the tradition, it emerged that the grammella was useful to best represent the city. Iedde, therefore, was born from the desire to create a re-edition of the traditional grammella. A redesign operation that is not simple because the traditional grammella is a poor object resulting from an anonymous design.
What are your future plans for this award winning design?
Iedde is already in production. The first series is of 100 pieces and is characterized by a progressive serial number useful for identifying the very first production. Being a symbolic object of the city, production will continue and, thanks to the support of the Municipality of Taranto, it will also become the city's cadeau.
Furthermore, the name IEDDE has become representative of the brand with which I am starting the production of tools and products intended for the consumption and processing of the prized Taranto mussel
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- The Grammella, a typical object of Taranto (Italy), is a tool used to shell mussels. Iedde is the result of a redesign operation focused on the analysis of the traditional grammella, its use, the geographical context and the mussel. The ergonomics of the tool, oriented towards a shape easy to handle, derives from the handle, whose shapes lend themselves to being received in the palm and from the blade that arises spontaneously following the curve of the grip, to connect harmoniously to the base
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width mm 125 x Depth mm 36 x Height mm 25
- Tags
- knife, mussels knife, kitchen tool, handmade, handcrafted, traditional, wood, iron, professional, mussel
- Production Technology
- The blades, in ma5mv stainless steel, were obtained from a 2 mm sheet metal with laser cutting technology, and hardened with heat treatment in the oven. The olive wood handle was made with a cnc machine. The components, blade and handle, were then assembled in a sandwich structure with 2 through pins and finally everything was finished with manual and bench equipment. Each piece was then branded and numbered with laser engraving
- Design Challenge
- The redesign of a traditional and authorless object, born from a necessity and not from a project, always represents an exciting challenge full of pitfalls because, overcoming simplicity and economy isn't never so simple. The main obstacle was that of the diffidence of sector operators in testing the prototypes. Mussel farmers and restaurateurs, accustomed to the use of traditional grammella, appreciated the qualities of Iedde only after assessing the effectiveness of the innovations introduced.
- Research
- Historical research has been oriented towards territorial uses and traditions, thus identifying the traditional grammella as the representative instrument of the maritime culture of Taranto. Interviews with mussel farmers and restaurateurs highlighted the weak points of the traditional grammella, once they were resolved, study sketches were made and then some prototypes to refine the instrument's characteristics. The result is Iedde destined to become a modern gift for the city of Taranto
- Inspiration
- The Taranto black mussel was recognized as Slow Food Presidium and in honor of this it was decided to make a re-edition of the traditional grammella. The mussel inspired the shape of the handle from which the whole instrument derives. A current image has been given to an anonymous design object born from necessity and not from a project. Iedde, with its shape, function and materials, isn't just a grammella, but an iconic object that refers to traditions and territory; a tangible visual message
- Project Duration
- The project started in April 2022 in Taranto and finished in September 2022 in Taranto. The prototype was exhibited at the Ego Festival in Taranto in September 2022. In December 2022, 100 numbered pieces were produced and sold upon reservation and in February 2023, mass production was started for the national and international market. On February 28th it was exhibited at the Amoris Terrae event c/o Fasano (Brindisi - Italy)
- Operation Flow
- Iedde must be placed in the palm of the hand that closes around it. The blade is then inserted into the mussel and shells it with a back and forth movement, releasing the fruit enclosed inside (see the video). It works better than the traditional grammella thanks to the new shape of the handle and the curved shape which places the instrument in the right position, as opposed to the traditional version which, being linear, forced the user to tilt the hand (see the documentation).
- Patents
- Pending patent. UIBM n° 402023000000147. Giuliano Ricciardi. 2023. Italian
- Team Members
- Giuliano Ricciardi
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Giuliano Ricciardi, Iedde 01, 2023
Image #2: Photographer Giuliano Ricciardi, Iedde Combo, 2023
Image #3: Photographer Giuliano Ricciardi, Iedde 02, 2023
Image #4: Photographer Giuliano Ricciardi, Iedde with mussels, 2023
Image #5: Photographer Giuliano Ricciardi, Iedde packaging, 2023
Sponsored
Explore Beyond Designers.org
Discover products, services and opportunities from our advertising partners.
More to Explore
Related Designs
Explore more award-winning designs from the same category, selected by merit.
