THE TALE OF A THREAD THAT BECOMES A SHAWL

"There are a thousand, in my heart of fairy tales to tell ..."

This is how a famous storyteller sang in the single of the 80's Fiabe Sonore and so I like to start this which is one of the "other stories" of the l'Oca Bianca.

I have always been attracted to everything that Nature offers us, indiscriminately by rare and precious things, as well as by the simpler and crude ones.

Never as in this moment we have all the duty to be grateful to her and not to waste even a grain of her immense and delicate heritage.

When, 15 years ago, a friend showed me a good quantity of linen skeins destined for pulping, I didn't think for a moment and decided to "save" them and take them home, convinced that sooner or later something beautiful would ensue.

The inspiration came during a walk in the company of my beloved dogs, when I found myself immersed in the green meadow of the Friuli plain in spring.

That green absolutely had to meet, wake up and make the flax that has been dormant for years in my attic bloom.

Fortunately, my family members got used to seeing strange things coming out of the room that I use as a home laboratory when they are not in the "real" one in San Daniele, so no one was surprised when I started dyeing the skeins, strictly with natural dyes, nor when to hang on the laundry lines, kissed by the sun, dozens and dozens of meters of that linen have finally become something.

The raw fiber, continuing the story, had in fact met on its path the skilled hands of two highly skilled weavers, Loredana and Gaetana, guardians of the secrets of the skilled and pragmatic Friulian artisans.

Intertwining experimentation with historical research, warp calculations with my dreams, their 4-heddle looms have woven meters and meters of stole, through a challenging but extremely creative and satisfying path.

Linen is a very strong fiber, yet very light, capable of becoming transparent and evanescent.

The shawls told in this story are all different from each other, with unique characteristics for each piece, with the imperfection that is the quality of true beauty and makes every artifact precious today more than ever.