The Pellini Technique: Innovation and Tradition Donatella's early work was in plexiglass and malalite, well-suited to the sculpted jewelry in fashion at the time. But her unique resins, with the subtly evocative "inclusions" of flowers, petals, and leaves, are famous as the very signature of Donatella Pellini's designs.         The resin process was developed in the Pellini laboratory in 1987. It was inspired by couturier Romeo Gigli, who had asked Donatella to help him complement his creations with necklaces resembling coral and amber. The results with synthetics were not satisfactory, and so began the experiments with resins. Gigli was delighted, and Donatella continued to explore:         "The resin is a beautiful material that brings with it infinite possibilities. It is exciting to follow the work step by step, from a liquid to a jewel with a magical iridescence. We can work with it because our laboratory is at an artisanal level. A large factory could not come close to this kind of resin because it requires highly skilled manual control. It is a difficult material to deal with, pouring each mold one by one, adding the inclusion and the color by hand"         But as much as the new resins define Donatella's art, her work in crystal and glass is unforgettable, antique fantasies of light and color reconceived in truly modern settings. "I still have an archive of glass from Murano, and of crystal from what was then Czechoslovakia, that my grandmother carefully collected in the 1950's. Up until recently I didn't dare even approach these precious objects, but now I've decided to use them sparingly." And so the tradition continues.