Queen of the Ants by Fenes

Romanian artist Toma Fenes’s contribution to The Art of Cutlery, a pizza wheel named “Queen of the Ants,” on show during summer 2024 in Tribeca, NYC, renders the humble pizza tool in extraordinary and artistic detail. Over 200 hours of work were needed to forge the cutter’s handle and frame from reclaimed iron, the wheel from 26c3 carbon steel, and the stand from fir wood and copper, inlaid and detailed throughout with homemade mokume gane, bronze, fine silver, buffalo horn meticulously carved into a colony of ants, and copper. The wheel has been differentially hardened, etched, and polished to reveal a hamon. The fir has been penetrated with Chlorociboria aeruginascens, a saprobic species of mushroom that results in the green coloring, an artistic technique used since at least the 14th century. This artful pizza cutter is built and finished for use in the kitchen and dining room.