17 November 1930, Orciano di Pesaro, Italy -
21 December 2002, Milan, Italy
Like his brother Arnaldo, Giò Pomodoro did not receive a formal artistic training and received his surveyor's diploma from the Bramante Technical Institute at Pesaro before undertaking national service in 1950-1951 in Siena and then Florence. There he spent much of his free time in a jewellers near the Ponte Vecchio where he learnt about goldsmithing and the technique of cuttlefish bone casting. In the 1950s Giò and his brother worked so closely together that it is unclear as to how many or which parts of their jewels were made by whom.
Giò initially worked with cuttlefish bone castings but later came to work with plain gold, fashioning plaquettes or strips that he gave to the goldsmith Giuseppe Fusari, with whom he developed an exceedingly close working relationship, to finish up. Later in the 1960s he also designed unique jewels for the Fumanti brothers in Rome and multiples for his brother-in-law Giancarlo Montebello in Milan.