Tessitura della Seta Calabrese
A silk weaving tradition in Calabria — historically among Italy's primary silk-producing regions — producing plain silks, damasks, and velvets on hand looms, sustained by mulberry cultivation along the Ionian coast, and now a critically endangered tradition with fewer than a handful of active hand weavers.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · No listing
The historically all-female Venetian trade of stringing loose Murano glass beads (conterie) into saleable strands, using 24-30 long needles worked simultaneously from a bead-filled tray held in the lap — a distinct craft from the lampwork…
A tradition of tin-glazed earthenware centered in Albissola Marina and Savona (Liguria), characterized by distinctive blue-and-white and polychrome decoration, grotesque figures, and a 20th-century fusion with modernist art movements —…
The making of lace by weaving and crossing multiple threads wound on bobbins, worked on a stuffed cylindrical cushion (tombolo) with pins defining the pattern, producing geometric and floral lace in a tradition associated with the towns of…
The hand-binding of books using traditional techniques — sewing on cords or tapes, case-making in leather or cloth, gold tooling, and marbled paper — in a tradition associated with Milan's publishing and printing industry and the…
A silk velvet tradition distinct from Venetian velvet — Genoese velvet characterized by deep, uncut pile in bold pomegranate and palmette patterns on a satin ground, historically produced for the European aristocratic furnishing market and…
The cutting and fitting of semi-precious and ornamental hardstones — lapis lazuli, jasper, chalcedony, agate, malachite, serpentine — into pictorial and decorative compositions on a black stone ground, producing images of extraordinary…
Textile objects made in small Uruguayan workshops by hand-knitting, embroidery and the reuse of natural and discarded materials.
The Poncho Para'í de 60 Listas — woven in sixty fine alternating stripes on a traditional loom — is the defining handmade garment of Piribebuy, Cordillera Department, and its ancestral, traditional manufacturing techniques were formally…
The Samoan siapo (tapa cloth) tradition — the production of the distinctive Samoan bark cloth from the paper mulberry (u'a) whose characteristic geometric printed or painted patterns (using the 'ie toga — Samoan fine mat exchange…
Mongolian esgii (эсгий) is the primary structural and insulating material of nomadic life — used for ger wall panels, floor coverings, sleeping mats, saddlery, and winter clothing.
The Tongan ngatu (tapa cloth) tradition — the production of the distinctive Tongan tapa cloth in cooperative women's groups (kautaha) using the kupesi (carved relief tablet) rubbing technique to produce the characteristic ngatu patterns,…
A twined-weaving tradition using a distinctive long-shafted, large-diameter spindle whorl often carved with transformative crest imagery, producing blankets historically woven from the wool of a now-extinct domesticated Salish wool dog,…