Marta Cucchia and the Giuditta Brozzetti Weaving Studio

Sometimes people do things that make you absolutely marvel at their talent. Marta Cucchia of the Giuditta Brozzetti Weaving Studio in Perugia is one of those people who does this to me.

Everything Marta makes is amazing. I've told you a little about her and the Giuditta Brozzetti Weaving Studio before. I had the enormous good fortune of visiting them in 2009.

Back then Marta had recently finished a piece she had been studying and figuring out from a Pintoricchio painting.

She explained how she was fascinated by the designs on the fabric in the painting and thought to challenge herself by recreating the piece.

The piece is quite long and each line is a different pattern!

The inspiration for this work is the cloth that the Baby Jesus is wrapped in in this Pintoricchio painting which can be found in the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria museum in Perugia.

I am still in awe of Marta's talent five years later. She continues to do amazing work and is always finding new things to challenge herself with. If you ever find yourself in Perugia, you should not miss a trip to the Giuditta Brozzetti Weaving Studio, they have guided tours (in English too!).

Thanks to Vima for the use of her photos!

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.

Woven Souvenirs from the Milan World's Fair 1906

Today we stretch the relevancy of this post to Italian Needlework. Really I can say there is no needlework involved but we can squeeze under the umbrella of Italian textiles. It's my blog so I guess I can justify anything! The souvenir above features the portraits of the King and Queen of Italy. Click on the photos of a closer look.

I have been very kindly given photos and the permission to post them of souvenir cards from the 1906 Milan World's Fair which are woven silk pictures.




Here is what the back of the souvenir above looks like:


These souvenirs were woven on Jacquard looms, at the time a relatively recent invention which permitted intricately woven patterns. We took a look at some hand-operated Jacquard looms in Perugia in this post, however the looms which wove these souvenirs were almost certainly mechanized. I imagine that as the 1906 Milan World's Fair saw some 7,500,000 visitors the required number of souvenirs would have taxed even the most proficient hand-weavers!

These silk woven souvenirs are all made by L. Paroli & C. di Milano. I have been unsuccessful in finding out anything on this company.

I am told that even though there may have been a huge quantity of these souvenirs made, they are quite rare to find today, a mere century later. Silk woven souvenirs in good shape are even more difficult to find.

Enormous thanks to Ampelio of the NING group MI1906 for the photos and historical information!

Italian Needlework at the Textile Museum of Canada

Some days ago I read of the Textile Museum of Canada's online collection at the Needleprint Blog. I went right away and put "Italy" into the search engine and was delighted to get four pages of results with a total of 46 pieces to look at.

If you're going to look at these or other images on the website, I noticed some things (indicated in red boxes).

Sometimes there was some info on the piece:


And often there were alternate details views and "zoomify views":



Of the "Zoomify" views, I found the second one was always closer (click on the image or use the magnifying glass tool):



There are many different types of pieces to look at from needle lace and bobbin lace, whitework, threadpainting, goldwork, hand-weaving from Perugia, brocades and velvets, Assisi work and some particularly intriguing pieces - I'll give you the catalogue numbers in case my links get broken:

An Altar Cloth with a needle lace edging - Aemilia Ars work? Catalogue no. T96.0239

A Fragment - make sure to zoom in - the description says: Linen toile but I can see knots at the framework intersections and it's basted to gros grain like you would do for Filet work - I've never seen netting this big before or this kind of work done on it. Catalogue no. T95.0203

A Lace Edging - of all of them, I think this one is my favourite, a great piece of Venetian Gros Point. Catalogue no. T03.8.2

A "Shawl" (to me it's a table runner) with typical Antique Deruta work patterns but it's not pulled like the work I've seen, but rather filled in with what looks like Linen Stitch - don't miss the fuserole beads on the corner tassels! Catalogue no. T04.13.3

A Waistcoat - you must zoom in! Catalogue no. T93.0104

I'm off to see what putting "lace" in the search engine will get me...

Fili di Liguria - Threads of Liguria

This exhibition is going on right now until September 30, 2010 at the Abbey of San Fruttuoso a little to the south of Genoa on the north-western coast of Italy.

Liguria is well-known throughout history for it's textiles, macramé and bobbin lace and there is plenty of all that at this little show.

Two dresses from paintings of Genoese nobilewomen have also been recreated in exacting detail. The gown from this portrait by Rubens of the Marchesa Brigida Doria Spinola (1606) and the gown from this portrait by Van Dyck of Caterina Balbi Durazzo (1624).

On YouTube there is a six-minute video of a television report on the exhibition. It is particularly interesting as they show some great details of the gowns. There are also some beautiful fabrics and macramé fringes as well as laces and gold embroideries. Worth a look!

Handwoven Fabrics from Perugia

Just outside the walls of the city of Perugia, there is a beautiful deconsecrated church called San Francesco delle Donne which houses a lot of history. Dating back to 1212, it is one of the oldest Franciscan churches in Italy. Today it is home to the Giuditta Brozzetti Workshop which makes the most beautiful handwoven textiles.


Giuditta Casini Brozzetti started her workshop in 1921. She hunted down all the local medieval and renaissance designs that she could find and employed the women of her area to weave household and church fabrics and woven furnishing products. She permitted her workers to weave their products at home so that they could also attend to their families while earning a living at the same time. For the most part, the items woven were worked on hand operated jacquard looms. Patterns were hammered manually using a system of wooden pegs to make punched cards. With the help of the artist Bruno da Osimo, who prepared many of the patterns used by her workshop, Giuditta Brozzetti produced many beautiful items.

Some sketches for Perugian fabric by Bruno da Osimo from the book: L'Officina di Bruno da Osimo:


The workshop became much appreciated and admired and before the Second World War its products were even exported to the US.


The tradition of the Giuditta Brozzetti workshop has been passed down by now four generations and today the workshop calls the church San Francesco delle Donne its home. Marta Cucchia is the youngest descendant who now creates her own designs there.

Here Marta and Vima deMarchi Micheli hold up a magnificent runner woven with silk:


Marta was kind enough to give us a guided tour in May of 2009, giving us demonstrations of weaving and pattern punching as well as letting us fondle all the beautiful products on display.


The Giuditta Brozzetti workshop teaches weaving, embroidery, lacemaking and gives guided tours of the church. It should not be missed if you spend any time in Perugia!

For more photos and enthusiastic reviews, go here, here, here and here!