Sardinian Weaving

In the small comune of Ulassai in the south-east part of Sardinia among the mountains and cliffs there is a small hand-weaving workshop called Su Marmuri next to the Stazione d'Arte Museum which features many of the art works of a Sardinian artist named Maria Lai (you can see some of her art in this YouTube video).

The hand-weaving workshop features many of Maria Lai's artwork designs in their weaving...

and their signage! These little goats show up in many things.

Sardinian hand-weaving is really different, they make little bumps of thread by inserting a metal rod so that when the rod is pulled out only the bump of thread is left to form designs...

The rods are not the whole width of the weaving so many must be used together, it is a painstaking and time-consuming method but the results are very attractive!

Whether there are more than one colour used or just tone on tone, this method is striking:

I got a couple of hand-towels with Maria Lai's goats on them and a peacock patterned one which can be seen here.

After the visit to the museum and the hand-weaving studio, we visited Maria Lai herself but I'll save that story for another day.

San Vero Milis

I met so many talented stitchers on my last trip to Italy. I have to tell you about a fantastic lady from San Vero Milis in Sardinia. Her name is Rossella and she invited us to her lovely home and showed us lots of her needlework of which I can only show you a few pieces today as unfortunately most of my photos did not come out well.

Rossella is curious about all kinds of embroidery and needlework and she has tried many different techniques!

Punto Madama or Catherine de' Medici Embroidery

Fantastic Macramé fringe!

These last two Filet Lace pieces are designs by Maria Lai a famous Sardinian artist who uses textiles in her art. Rossella arranged for us to meet her but I'll tell you about that in another post.

After showing us her needlework and offering us coffee and delicious typical Sardinian pastries, we all piled into our cars and drove to Bosa, for a meeting with the ladies from the association La Foce which practices the ancient art of Bosa Filet Lace. Rossella had arranged for us to visit during one of their sessions where many ladies were working on fine pieces of Bosa Filet Lace.

I wish we could have spent more time in San Vero Milis, they have lots of artisan traditions and the scenery is breathtaking. I'll have to go back!