THE WEAVING ART IN PERUGIA

Marta, weaver

Welcome to my atelier in the heart of Perugia! It will be a pleasure to host you in my atelier, the former Church of San Francesco delle Donne, a deconsecrated building that in 1200AD was the first Franciscan church in Perugia. Since 1996, the hand-weaving workshop of Giuditta Brozzetti—my great-grandmother and founder of the atelier—has been based in these magnificent premises, and today it is one of the last places in Italy to practice hand-weaving. I will tell you the history of the workshop, started in 1921 with the intuition of Giuditta who recovered traditional motifs and designs from the Umbrian territory and founded the workshop-school for the production of high quality artistic fabrics for home furnishings. Millennial techniques and ancient production phases are still used today to create incredibly contemporary fabrics of historical inspiration. I will show you our artistic production that has been hand-woven in linen, cotton, silk, cashmere blend and gold and silver laminate on antique eighteenth-century pedal looms and nineteenth-century Jacquard looms. You will understand the functioning of our imposing Jacquard looms and of my beloved original loom of the 1700s, with which I still make copies of the fabrics found in the frescoes by Pinturicchio, Giotto, and Luca Signorelli, but also the initial phase of the work process: the preparation of the warp and weft, set up with a machine that was modified by Leonardo da Vinci, according to a system that is more than 500 years old! After discovering the secrets of production, you will test yourself under my guide, creating a decorative tassel made with the yarns I use for my production, which you can take home with you as a souvenir of the experience!

PERUGIA, Pg