After our visit with Carlo, we were off to Convalle to see Romeo Ricciardi. Romeo is now a weaver. He worked in a shoe factory, and after he retired, he decided to indulge his desire to weave. He bought an old handloom and took lessons from an elderly woman in his village. His wife Nada …
We drive to Piegaio to pay a visit to Carlo Galgani. The Galgani family has been blacksmiths for 500 years. Carlo is the last blacksmith in the family and holds on to the hope that one of his grandchildren will continue the family tradition. What was interesting to me was that fact that his bellows …
After breakfast, we drove to Lucca. The tour participants had some time to walk around Lucca, have some lunch, and have a private tour of the Maria Niemack Laboratory, National Museum Mansi. I opted to have some alone time and get lost in the streets of Lucca. At about 2pm, we drove to Segromigno …
After the Breadmaking, some of the local ladies from Petrognola (I believe church ladies) did a demonstration of spinning with a distaff and drop spindle. Spinning is the process where, in this case, wool or other fibre are pulled and twisted to form yarn. The distaff is the rod that holds the wool fibre and …
This afternoon we went to the home of Lucia Nesi in Colle di Compito. Lucia is a member of the Antiche Tessiture Lucchesi (Antique Textiles of Lucca). After a quick introduction, we started to collect fern leaves and different plants, etc to naturally dye wool. Those of you that know me know I have no …
