Search Results for “perugia”

Perugia 2.0

May 8, 2026 | 2 Comments

In October of 2024, I visited Perugia, Italy, for the first time as part of a workshop in Umbria on natural dyeing and using the wool to weave tapestry. I only had part of a day there, but it was one of the best days of that trip. You can read about it here, or maybe just look at the photos of this incredible place. Almost a year later I learned that through VAWAA you can book a week long workshop at Giuditta Brozzetti. A weaving acquaintance found the opportunity, and if she got three others to join her the cost for each of us would be reduced. I wasn’t sure where I’d be during the 3rd week of April this year, but I was certain I was going to get to Perugia for this workshop. As it turned out, Bob and I were in Almerimar, Spain, facing a record number of repairs needed on our sailboat Pandora. But I took a flight from Alicante, Spain, to Rome, and met my three weaving cohorts the following morning. We took a train to Perugia and saw a great deal of the countryside. It was a magical trip from the start.

We arrived on Saturday evening and spent Sunday touring the historic area of the city. Our lodging was not as charming as described on the website, and definitely ODD. It took us two hours to check with the owner’s ‘contactless check-in.’ I don’t recommend this. To get into the accommodation we had to go through a locked gate, then up two long fights of stone steps from the Middle Ages to a locked door. More time corresponding with the owner to get through that locked door, then another flight of modern stairs to the first room. My room required yet another flight of stairs. The rooms were not quite as advertised, but they had some antique charm and we made the best of it.

We were staying in a medieval part of the town which was very scenic. This is right outside the gate to the building where our rooms were.

At the bottom of this narrow street we turned into the large Piazza IV Novembre. It was great location for seeing much of historic Perugia.

The building behind the fountain is the National Gallery of Art that is housed in a medieval castle. The collection is focused on medieval religious art, with a wing devoted to Giotti and his students, and the effect they all had on portraying figures more realistically and emotionally. A hightlight for me was a small collection of highly figured woven altar cloths that Perugian women were so famous for making during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

These beautiful altar cloths were woven on floor looms where the ornate designs had to be picked by hand. Looms that could weave these designs had not yet been developed, so all this work was done painstakingly by hand. The tradition in the Middle Ages was to make the warp out local white linen, also spun by hand in this period, and to use very precious cotton from Egypt, dyed locally with idigo, for the patterned weft designs.

These woven fabrics are from the 13th c. so they are around 700 years old and still look so beautiful. You cannot tell how highly figured the white background cloth is. It is woven in a series of different diamonds, some created with lace weaves, and some with twills.

As I mentioned in the post from 2024, Leoanardo da Vinci used these cloths for inspiration in painting his fresco of the Last Supper. The current owner of the Giuditta Brozzetti workshop, Marta Cucchio, studied high resolution images of the fresco to recreate these elaborate designs for weaving on 18th and 19th c. manual jacquard looms. Four generations of Brozzetti women have worked to keep this Perugian weaving tradition alive. Marta is the first in the family to weave hersefl; her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother ran the business rather than doing any of the weaving. In the Middle Ages and early Renaissance these cloths were highly valued and commissioned for churches all over Italy and throughout Europe, which is why Marta’s family wanted to see this tradition continue on modern looms. While most of these cloths are no longer extant, many of the painters from this time period have preserved them in religious paintings, such as da Vinci’s fresco. If you look closely at the enlarged image of the fresco, you can see the patterns on the digital image and compare them to the modern tablecloth. Marta has studied these designs and recorded them for punch cards to be woven on jacquard looms. My cohorts and I dubbed the large diamond design “da Vinci’s diamonds,” and we gave the smaller designs names as well–“da Vinci’s small birds and flowers,” and “da Vinci’s DNA chain.” In this photo you can also see how highly figured the background cloth is.

Here is Marta and I, back in 2024, looking at a high resolution detail of the fresco, along with a photo of the entire fresco and part of the woven reproduction of the cloth. Can you tell I am awestruck?

All four of us were smitten with these historic designs and used them in our own work during the week. Our first exercise was to study a simple medieval design and draw it on graph paper as if we would translate it to the punch cards used on jacquard looms. It was an excellent exercise in understanding the jacquard loom. The penciled-in squares on the graph paper represent the weft threads, and the uncolored spaces are the warp tie-downs. I used this flower in one of the pieces I wove during the workshop.

Marta and her assistant Alessia worked with us throughout the week to hone our skills in using the jacquard looms. There is a lever above the beater that controls whether you are throwing a pick of background or a pattern pick, That is the first thing you set with each pass of weft. Then you depress the one treadle which is quite heavy since it is controlling the lift of many warp threads, sometimes thousands. Next you pull the cord for the fly shuttle, which was set for either background weft or pattern weft when you set the binary lever at the center of the loom above the beater. The rhythm is binary lever, depress treadle, pull the fly shuttle cord, release treadle, beat. Each of the looms is a different width and has its own quirks in operation. One thing that was standard is that we needed to depress the treadle somewhat gently, but to release the treadle aggressively and quickly. By the end of the week I was struggling to release the treadle quickly enough. You only use one leg for treadling, your right, and the treadle is rather high. By the end of the week I was struggling to lift my leg high enough to release the treadle quickly. Not being quick at this maneuver causes small weft skips that will have to be corrected. I’ll have a number of corrections to make!

It’s surprising and thrilling to be able to weave so much in so little time. Here is some of our work

This is my first finished piece. Beyond the cloth beam I had practiced half the diamond design and some of the flowers. I was particularly smitten with these oldest designs that have been handed down through artwork, so my first piece is “da Vinci diamonds” and the ” da Vinci little flowers.”

The second piece I wove is from the London Liberty period during the Arts and Crafts period. It’s pomegranates, and I blended three colors of reds for each repeat of the design–light reds first, then medium reds, and finally dark reds. I then repeated that sequence backwards for light, medium, dark, medium, light. Each pattern weft requires three threads of 4/68 cotton held together, so all of us enjoyed creating our own color blends. The bottom border is a chain and then small trees, and the top border is several repeats of the chain. Alessia said she’d like to weave my color combination herself! Maybe she says that to everyone… She recorded all our color choices, and we did as well, not that I may ever have the opportunity to use a jacquard loom in the future. I have grandiose plans to make this fabric into a handbag, like the one I bought when I visited here in 2024.

pomegranate design from the Arts and Crafts period in England, woven using a blend of reds.

I also wanted to weave fabric of the interesting background designs. I chose several colors of cream to weave against the cream warp, and then a combination of wheat colors for the middle section. I want to do a rolled hem on this piece and little picots of bullion stitch to turn this into a table runner. At the end of this I wove a short section of little trees to cut into book marks.

In the middle of using the jacquard looms, I tried the 4-shaft floor loom when I had to wait for the next available jacquard loom. These cloths were simple twill designs that look more complicated than they actually are. There are paintings that depict the Madonna and Child with the baby Jesus wrapped in these type of woven cloths. This painting is by Pinturicchio from 1496.

I was quite intrigued by what the Perugian women wove with simple, 4-shaft twill designs in the Middle Ages on counter balance looms. There are plenty of examples at Giuditta Brozzetti. I spent some time weaving a sample to take home with me. There is a possible tablecloth in my weaving future.

Here is our wonderful teacher Alessia Galassi showing us some of the woven goods at the workshop. She has a master’s degree in historic jacquard weaving, and did research on the mistakes in woven jacquard fabrics. You can find info about here here.

And here is Marta Cucchio whose family started this venture in 1921, and who has been running the business since the 1990s. She is an enthusiastic champion of preserving this Perugian tradition. Thank heaven. Giuditta Brozzetti Museo e Laboratorio. I took this photo because I’d like to make a vest like she’s wearing. I want to weave the fabric in a fine wool plain weave and knit the interesting collar.

In 1995 Marta bought a 13th c. chapel that had originally been the first church of St. Francis of Assissi. It was later sold to the Benedictines and used as a convent. Over its long history it has also been a spinning mill. It’s a stunning setting for the jacquard looms and the fabrics made here that are for sale.

I am particularly interested in this woven phrase which is Perugia’s motto: Per Aspera ad Astra. In Latin this literally means “Through hope to the stars.” Marta says it means something more like through life’s challenges hope brings us to the stars. I wanted to weave this as one of my projects, but that jacquard chain only fits on the largest loom, which students do not use. Alessia got out the graph of this design, suggesting that I might use it for embroidery. Good idea. On the image of the woven pillow the phrase is surrounded by griffons, which are the emblem of Perugia. A griffon has the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, which is symbolic of being able to fly to heaven to talk to God and to be powerful on earth.

My biggest thrill was buying a tote bag! Several months ago I had seen that Marta had designed and made a tote bag for one of the hauture Italian fashion houses for an opening event they held. I asked if she planned to make more, and she responded that she wasn’t sure when she’d have them. When I arrived at the workshop I didn’t see any, and I was too disappointed to ask about them. Then, on the last day of our class Marta arrived late because she driven somewhere to pick up the first six tote bags! I was very lucky to get the first pick since I had asked for one. It is a treasure, along with the handbag I bought when I was last here.

During our stay we managed to see and do some memorable things in Perugia. We had a number of dinners in medieval spaces that were nicely renovated for modern living, such as this restaurant in a nice corner with Chris (L) and Shari (R).

It was a lush time of year in Perugia, and we were lucky to only have a short shower one day during our visit. Here are Bev (L) an Shari (R) standing under a large wisteria vine.

The views from the medieval wall were impressive. What a beautiful city!

I had hoped to buy a piece of Deruta pottery during this visit, but Marta warned me that Perugia is not the place for that, allthough Deruta is from Umbria. My friends all bought Perugian chocolate, but I missed that opportunity–not sure why! We did find a mother/daughter enterprise who paint tiny spheres of pottery in a technique called “fuseruola.” They make exquisite jewelry and other things in this technique, which is an ancient art that was originally used to decorate the whorls of drop spindles. How could I NOT buy one of these? I chose earrings, but I was seriously tempted by a larger sphere painted with sea shells that could sit on a shelf on Pandora. I do regret not getting that. You can see their work online.

The entrance sign to Giuditta Brozzetti draped in yellow roses in April

“Per Aspera ad Astra!” I hope to have a Perugia 3.0 someday. I never realized how much I would enjoy weaving on these looms in spite of the physical challenges involved. Naturally, I wish I’d discovered this when I was younger, but I’ll take what I can get, and however long I left to weave, I hope it includes more time on a jacquard loom.

Jacquard Weaving in Perugia

November 22, 2024 | 4 Comments

Here I sit in English Harbour, Antigua, thinking about my recent return from Umbria, Italy, and the highlight of my time there: a visit to a jacquard weaving museum and atelier in Perugia that is housed in a 13th c. Franciscan church.

Perugia became a walled city in the Middle Ages, prior to the building of this church in 1212. It was originally a simple hermitage that was founded by St. Francis of Assisi when he and his followers stayed here together. By 1252 the monastery was ceded to Benedictine nuns and given the name San Francesco delle Donne. St. Francis of the women—for the women? It was abandoned numerous times through the centuries, and I don’t know those stories. Our host at La Romita, the art school where we were taking a workshop on tapestry weaving and natural dyeing, mentioned that Perugia defended itself many times over the centuries. Most of the conflicts had to do with the vying city states and their status in the Catholic Church, and throughout the Middle Ages Perugia was an impoverished place, in spite of their reputation for excellent craftsmanship in pottery and textiles, and probably other fine crafts that I haven’t found in my searches. There is some great information on the Giuditta Brozzetti website.

The Brozzetti family started the weaving museum and atelier in 1912, but not in its current location. The museum is named in honor of the current owner’s great grandmother, Giuditta Brozzetti. Giuditta started an atelier to bring back the historic handwovens of Perugia, especially the “Perugian tablecloths” that were often used as altar cloths in churches, as well as being tablecloths in the homes of the very wealthy. Textiles were far more valuable throughout history than they are today and were always listed in the inventories of wealthy families. The atelier and museum moved to this magnificent site in the church in 1996. I believe it took a lot of work to bring the church into state we see it today. It is magnificent!

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Marta Cucchia, the great granddaughter of the founder and current owner:

“My studio is one of the last weaving ateliers in Italy – and the only one that reproduces medieval Perugian Tableclothes using Jacquard looms from nineteenth century. Furthermore, with the pedal looms, typical of the Umbrian countryside, we create fabrics using millenary techniques passed down orally from generation to generation. My great-grandmother, Giuditta Brozzetti, founded this Laboratory in 1921. From then on, the passion for hand-weaving was passed down from mother to daughter, each woman bringing her own experience according to her personality and studies.”

Marta has four women who assist her in the studio, and they have all come out of textile schools to make this field their livelihood. What an exciting place to work!

Some of the projects that Marta oversees are replicas of actual textiles in paintings from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. During our visit Marta showed us a couple of impressive replicas. She had high resolution images taken of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” and she had small areas enlarged so she could study the tablecloth. In hind sight, why didn’t I think to ask her if she thought that cloth had been woven in Perugia?

Even in this low resolution image of the fresco, taken from the intenet, you can see that the tablecloth is highly figured at each end, but also there is a hint that the white on white areas also have interesting weave structures.

Detail of a similar fabric from a different painting:

Here Marta is showing us some of the images she used to design the tablecloth. Clearly I am scratching my head in amazement!

And here is the finished cloth, woven at the Giuditta Brozzetti Atelier:

The jacquard looms in this studio are all from the 19th c except one that is older from the 18 c. These are hand manipulated looms, where the process of weaving involves attaching every thread in the warp to a jacquard attachment that has a series of cards that control the patterns. The weaver stands at the front of the loom and depresses the one treadle (a heavy one that sits rather high off the ground!) with her right foot —yes, they are all women at this atelier. Depressing the treadle opens the shed, and the weaver pushes a lever that is above the beater that engages one of the jacquard cards, then she pulls a cord that sends the fly shuttle through the shed of the open warp. Here is a video of the process, although at this point the weaver is weaving some plain weave between the designs, rather than the more interesting pattern.

Here is Marta showing us one of the many charts of jacquard designs in her collection. These graphed charts are used to make the cards which will control the weaving patten on the looms.

And here is my best attempt at getting a shot of the entire loom. The warp on the loom will be obvious to most of you. The yellow cords anre atracked to each warp thread and are running vertically to a loft area where you just see a bit of the roll of cards used to weave the design. There are other ‘chains’ of cards being stored on the railing of the loft.

I neglected to count how many jacquard looms are in this large studio, but here’s a photo of the long row of them in the museum.

Many traditional Perugian designs can be woven on regular shaft looms with floor treadles. Marta demonstrated this on what looks like an equally old loom to the jacquard looms.

Here is particularly stunning tablecloth woven on a shaft loom in a traditional woven structure with luscious colors. I tentatively asked if it was for sale (and the price) and learned that Marta wove this tablecloth for her wedding. What a treasure…

During the time when Marta’s mother led this studio they produced some designs for clothing. During Marta’s tenure she has also had commissions from Italian haut couture houses.

These dresses were designed and woven here, and I’m guessing this occurred in a past decade, perhaps the 1960s? 1970s?

There are other modern designs available here. This is quite a striking pattern that was for sale as a shawl or a cushion.

While we were there one of the weavers brought out this tiny gem woven in the same structure. They are not yet available, but as soon as they are I need one! I’m sure they will be popular. When I posted a photo of this Facebook some of my friends immediately asked how to get one.

This is my prize purchase from the day, a gem that gives me a little shiver of thrill whenever I take it with me somewhere. It is equally beautiful on the inside, lined in a fine silk fabric from Fendi.

Marta and I also discussed some of the fine finishing that goes into many of the pieces they make. In particular, Marta’s mother adds a beautiful bullion edge to some of the table runners. I must give this a try on some of my handwoven projects. I bought a small runner that I cannot show you because it is at home, and I am writing this in Antigua. Mine is off white on white, with jacquard designs at each end, and the point twill design in the middle. This one is far more elaborate, but I want you see the bullion stitch edges.

Each one of the pieces woven here are exceptional examples of textile skill. In many parts of the US, textiles are no longer valued as they deserve. I hope we can bring some of that respect and awe back into our lives. My house is full of my own handwovens, and sometimes I marvel that many of my guests don’t realize that. I’m not sure people even see textiles anymore, beyond noticing someone in a beautiful dress. There is so much to marvel at in the world of handmade cloth. The Giuditta Brozzetti Museum and Atelier has to be one of the best places to go and relish the beauty of handwoven goods. Get there if you can! If not, there are beautiful images and descriptions on the website.

Cartagena! I got there!

May 3, 2026 | 2 Comments

While I was in Perugia I thought that Bob and our friends would sail to Cartagena, but Bob was mired in so many repairs. Our friends were supposed to meet Bob in Cartagena, and I was supposed to fly there from Italy when I finished my workshop in Perugia. Nothing has gone as planned on this trip, except for the incredible time in Perugia. Thank heaven for that! At the end of the workshop I flew back to Almeria, our friends joined us a day later, and we all waited an additional two days to set sail for Cartagena. In our original plans I would have missed Cartagena all together, so in the long run, some bad events open up great opportunities.

I am so happy to be in Cartagena! The Roman museum and amphitheater are beyond my imagination. The museum has some terrific artifacts from the Roman period, and the work to excavate the theater is impressive. The theater held 7000 people. It was built during Augustus Caesur’s reign. The Roman empire was failing, and Augustus wanted a place to hold events honoring his reign as well as theatrical performances. Reminds me very much of our current situation in the US.

It was definitely as impressive as the amphitheater in Rome that I visited while doing studies in Roman history in college—50 years ago. It was a thrill to visit something Roman again after so many decades! — almost as thrilling as getting to Tarquinia when I visited Umbria the first time, in October of 2024. These moments returning to places so important to my past life are quite exciting.

A beautifully carved capital on a column

Other capital carvings in the museum. I often imagine weaving tapestries of images that were originally carved in stone.

Afterward we walked around the area where this excavation continues. The Roman forum is not open to the public because they are still working on it. Here is a beautiful garden and fresco in the area.

Some sights from the center of Cartgena

May 1 is Labor Day in Spain, and the Spanish know how to celebrate a holiday better than we do. The shops and museums are closed on May 1, instead of being open for big sales. Afterall, it’s a holiday to celebrate workers so they should have the day off! The entire city of Cartagena was turned into a giant festival with live music, including some famous bands and singers who performed on a big stage near the city’s promenade that runs along the edge of the Mediterranean. The festival lasts from Friday through Sunday.

There were many women and young girls dressed in flamenco costumes.

And here is a group of women ‘of a certain age’ dressed in Victorian costumes, enjoying cocktails together. Gloves and lace fans!!

On Saturday the Labor Day festivities continued, and another celebration took place as well. From what I understand the May 2nd celebration is specific to Cartagena. It is called “Gesta del 2 di May” and honors the soldiers who served in the war against Napolean, when in 1808 the Spanish succeeded in defeating Napolean’s forces and expelling them from Spain. But the parade and exercises seemed to honor more than that. There were speeches that seemed to cover the history of Spain, medals were given to soldiers from various branches of the military. The ceremony opened with the military band playing while a small corp gave a 21 gun salute on the four canons that had been placed on the parade grounds. Here are the canon guard before the ceremony started.

All the branches of the military paraded in to the site while the drum corp set the pace.

Trumpets and drums playing for entrance march.

The final event of this ceremony was another gun salute on canons and the placement of a wreath on the black obelisk that honors those who served in the Spanish American war that was fought in Cuba. This ceremony was well attended by locals who heartily sang the two songs the band played that had lyrics. I don’t know which song was their national anthem, but surely the anthem was part of the ceremony. I also don’t know why this event only takes place in Cartagena each year.

Before this festive weekend in Cartagena, we took our friends to the airport in Alicante to fly home. Boy! Do we wish they could have stayed with us longer to experience this weekend in Cartagena. We dropped them at the airport in mid-morning and then used the rental car to visit Alicante, which has a castle dating from the Moorish middle ages through the Catholic renaissance.

Here is Bob sitting at the highest point in the castle.

The Castille de Santa Barbara (surely the name given to it in the Catholic period) has an interesting exhibit on the pottery shards found on this site. The first item on display is an incredible assemblage of shards from the entire time the castle was in use.

While I love pottery, I can also imagine the beautiful imagery on these pots being used for a tapestry.

The info on these pieces date them to the 1st century BC, yet they are so timeless.

There was glitch to this visit to Cartagena and Alicante. While standing in line to pay my entrance fee to the Roman museum, I got pickpocketed! I had gotten out my very smal travel wallet, then put it away when my friends paid my entrance fee. The pickpocket probably saw where I returned it to the tote bag I was carrying, and I have to admit that I was not hugging the tote to my body as I should have done. Also, there was a cruise ship in port, which always brings out the skilled thieves. Within an hour there were charges on the two travel credit cards I carry, and also an attempted withdrawal on my debit card. The banks involved caught all the attempts right away and closed my accounts. While that is a burden, we are thankful that Bob has one credit card that was not affected, and I still have one card that does not have currency exchange exemptions. We’ll be fine for the next month on our continued travels.

I returned to the Roman museum yesterday to buy a silk screened silk scarf that I would have bought if not for the pickpocket situation. It is designed and silk screened by an artist named Ron Torres. I have not yet found him online, but I will. Here is the unboxing…forigve me, but I was so smitten by the scarf and the presentation.

Wasn’t I lucky to get to visit these two cities with such long histories? There are signs throughout the center of Cartagena noting its 3000 year history. I am thrilled to be here, especially since I thought our sailing plans would make me miss it. That’s one thing no one can predict about traveling by sail, and it worked out very well for me on this adventure.

How Hard Can It Be to Make Lemonade?

April 10, 2026 | 2 Comments

As of the end of this weekend, we will have been in Almerimar for three weeks! How did that happen? We planned to take 10 days to check repairs on Pandora and do some maintenance, like putting on the sails, checking the systems, etc. But the work that should have been over the fall/winter was mostly not done. Some of the work was not done well and had to be re-done. It hasn’t exactly been a nightmare, but as charming as Almerimar is, I’d love to move on.

We had plans to be in Cartagena by early April. Now I won’t see it all. I will miss seeing the Roman amphitheater and forum, along with the museum. I will miss seeing the local fine crafts—weaving, basketry, and pottery. A good friend was hoping to see fabrics that I might get for her. None of it happening. It’s a big disappointment for me.

And I haven’t mentioned the wind! Egads! It started yesterday, and on top of being fierce, yanking us all over in our slip, it is deafening. One of lines on the boat next to us has chafed our brand new paint job on our port stern quarter. The wind is screaming through the rigging on all the boats, and boat halyards are banging constantly. I am someone who comes unglued with too much noise, and boy! This is too much. It’s a bit quieter today, but I need a break from it.

Yesterday evening Bob began looking into what we might do for a few days while we wait for our new roller furler for the jib to arrive from Denmark. Tracking says it will arrive on Tuesday, so Bob and the rigger will spend all day Wednesday installing it and putting the sail back on. On Friday I fly to Rome to meet three weaving friends to travel together to Perugia to take a week long workshop on weaving on manual jacquard looms. My flight is from Alicante, and because of delays on Pandora, we can’t get there by boat in time for my flight, so we will be renting a car then as well as now.

But…lemonade! Bob noticed that Granada, which is closer to us than Cartagena or Alicante, has some very interesting textile possibilities. Finding a place to stay and a car to rent has been Herculean, and it’s not done yet. So perhaps writing about it now could be highly jinx-able. We have a room booked in the historic part of Granada, but no car yet for getting there! And of course we cannot get a car here in Almerimar on such short notice, so we will need to take a 2-hour bus ride to the airport in Almeria to get a car. We’ll spend the day in Almeria, so that will hopefully make up for the long bus ride.

The history of silk weaving in the area around Granada is fascinating. The Arabs brought these skills and materials with them when they overtook the area in the 8th c. They planted mulberry trees in the area and brought with them horizontal looms (like today’s floor looms) for producing silk fabric on a large scale. Granada became part of the Silk Road. The outlying area has a number of workshops known for tapestry, rug weaving, and finer textiles. I’m a little worried that what I’ve seen online looks a bit touristy, but it will be a much needed change of venue.

And this will fill the bill nicely. It’s the Casa del Aljarife, where we will stay from Sunday to Tuesday, and will certainly enjoy this terrace view of the Moorish castle

And here is the entrace to the current ‘silk market’ in Granada.

We will spend tomorrow in Almeria where I hope to find a knitting store so I can buy a crochet hook, which I forgot to bring, in order to start my next knitting project with a provisional cast on. It seems like I should be able to do a chain stitch with a knitting needle, especially since you can do it with nothing but your fingers (just too large a scale for what I need). I plan to look into that! But this shop should make a very nice distraction for me whether I need a crochet hook or not!

Puntexsa yarn shop in Granada–just one of numerous yarn possibilities in Granada

So the weekend should hold some interesting opportunities for me, not to mention a much needed change of scenery. Lemonade is now made, thanks to Bob who is very good at lemonade.

Tech of All Sorts

January 28, 2025 | Leave a Comment

I now have a few projects in Notion somewhat under control. I absolutely could not set it up myself, so my younger son came to my rescue. He loves Notion. He says you can create any kind of system for keeping track of things with it, from spread sheets, graphs, tables, or even ‘cards’ with info. And you can add photos and notes. You have to know how to do this yourself though; there are precious few tutorials. It’s a tracking app for people who are already computer savvy, and that is not me. I have a lot more data to put into my Notion file, but I’m off to good start.

This week I am in an online class with Cally Booker on Doubleweave Huck. The Michigan League of Handweavers is hosting this class. They are in Michigan, Cally is in Scotland, and I am in the Caribbean. What a world. There are three class days, and we’ve already had two of them. Cally gets online mid-afternoon, while the Eastern US folks (including the Michiganders) get online at 9:30 am, most of them with coffee cups in hand. I am on Atlantic time and have finished my coffee and breakfast by the time class starts for me at 10:30. An old acquaintance of mine, from my first guild in central New Jersey, whom I’ve thought of fondly over the decades since I moved away from NJ, is taking the class from Arizona. She has to be ready to participate at 7:30 am. When we finish, Cally is ready for tea, and I am ready for lunch. My friend in Arizona can still get some breakfast! Indeed, what a world.

I don’t have a loom onboard, so I am weaving virtually, as well as being virtual myself. I have put a standard 8S huck threading in Fiberworks, and I copy it into new drawdowns to change the lift plans to get different weaving effects. Everyone else gets to go to their looms and actually weave. I look forward to seeing what they’ve woven at our next class. I won’t have anything to show. This is my set up for class. Tech on tech, with tech….I’m in the zoom class on my ipad while making drawdowns on my laptop.

My mind is focused on the incredible trajectory of weaving history as I participate in things this week. Through Marta Cucchio’s facebook page, I learned that the documentary film about her atelier, that my La Romita group visited in October, would have a free screening on the website for Hollywood Short Fest. The film recently won an award from this organization and was offering the free screening until last night. Over the past week I watched it twice. This atelier and museum has been on my mind constantly since I was there. Marta is the 4th generation woman to continue the revival of very old Perugian weaving designs. She moved the atelier to a very appropriate site outside the medieval of walls of Perugia in 1996. It is now housed in the de-sanctified church of San Francesco delle Donne, St. Francis of the Women, and Marta’s workshop employees are all women. The building originated as a hermitage where St. Francis and his disciples stayed when it was built in 1212. The name came when the Franciscan monks gave the church to Benedictine nuns in 1252. Being outside the city walls it was abandoned numerous times, since there were many battles and wars fought in this area, where being outside the city walls would make this building indefensible. The salt wars greatly diminished Perugia’s economy so this building was abandoned. In the early 19th c it was a spinning mill for a short period.

Before Marta Cucchio took possession of this site for the atelier, four generations of her mother and grandmothers had run this business at other locations. Marta is the first of these women to learn to weave and participate fully in the business.

What has been on my mind since visiting her atelier is, of course, the fabrics. We cannot know the woven structures that Mary actually wore, or the fabrics with which she may have wrapped the baby Jesus. What we know are the fabrics painted by the great artists of the Middle Ages. From those paintings and the historic records of woven patterns created and executed in Perugia, we know a great deal about the fabrics woven in medieval Perugia and can identify them in paintings. As it is, the patterns depicted in medieval paintings and frescos would have been woven entirely by hand-manipulation which would have made them incredibly valuable. For many centuries it was customary for wealthy families to have an inventory of the textiles they owned along with inventories of jewelry, silver and other precious household items. I think most non-weavers would be surprised to learn how valuable fabrics were in earlier times.

Marta and her colleagues weave on manual jacquard looms, a technology that was invented in the early 19th c. Her looms date to the late 19th c. It’s a more-high tech way of producing these fabrics from the Middle Ages, but it is far from the technology we have today. It took two years for the Giuditta Brozetti weavers to plan and execute a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s tablecloth from the “Last Supper.” Some of that was research, certainly, but the whole process of making the warp, dressing the loom, which included attaching the many jacquard ‘mail eyes’ or ‘hooks’ to the warp threads, even punching the jacquard cards, took most of that time. I wonder what it felt like to throw those first dozens of weft passes and watch the patterns emerge.

During my visit in October, Marta mentioned that someone had made a short documentary about her project. The film was shown at Cannes, and then this week, she posted that it had won an award at the Hollywood Short Fest. The Short Fest group posted a free screening of the film for six days. I watched it twice. I could watch it a dozen more times. The breadth of history shown in a skill that I love spans most of human time. In this instance, Marta’s great grandmother started this atelier 100 years ago. Marta wanted to mark this historic moment by weaving something far older that celebrates the weaving history of Perugia. I marvel that women have taken this skill from the most basic materials, both in fiber and equipment on which to weave, all the way to the space age, where computers weave fabrics that are not only used in space, but in human bodies to replace vital body parts.

When I return home I will weave my double huck samples on one of my two computerized dobby looms. I will be part of the long chain of women who have expressed themselves through fabric with whatever is at hand, in my case fairly advanced technologies, like machine-spun yarns and a computerized dobby loom. Then I will sit and hand-hem my fabric. From the space age to the Stone Age. It’s all good. I don’t understand much about computer tech, but I am glad to now be able to track my weaving projects in Notion, and even weave some of my projects via computer driven looms. I still make the warps by hand, and dress the loom by hand, winding the warp onto the back beam, threading the heddles, and tying on to the cloth beam, all by hand. I still throw the shuttle that creates the cloth. What a world.

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