About

Oh Johnny!
is a creative practice
a love story
a research project
and my treasured sideline:
I find great joy (and relaxation) in assembling durable, affordable, and timeless pieces.

On April 11, 1948, a Swiss salesgirl and a Sicilian American GI met at the Chikito night club in Switzerland’s capital, Bern. They danced all night and were married a year later in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York. Whenever my grandfather, John, teased my grandmother during their 66 years together, she would say “Oh Johnny!" in a loving and sometimes annoyed way. They both loved Jazz, cocktail hour, a dining room filled with old and new friends who devoured my grandma’s homemade meatballs and angel-hair pasta with sweet roasted red peppers and crispy green salads, always lightly-juicily dressed.

I grew up in this Beauty, surrounded by this Melody.

Oh Johnny! began in 2011, in Zürich. It is a love story, a research project, a creative exercise, a hobby. I'm not a jewelry designer but an assembler of existing forms, it's like collaging. I like to play, mix and match—with various materials and a ton of joy.

To Beauty and Melody, S. Rebonati-Cannizzo

PS: Read more about my grandparents' love story here...