Merletto Campano / Tombolo di Napoli
A tradition of bobbin lace and needle lace making in Campania — concentrated in the towns around Naples and the Cilento coast — producing ecclesiastical and domestic lace in patterns derived from Spanish influence during the period of Spanish viceroyalty (1503-1707), characterized by heavier thread than northern Italian lace traditions and bold geometric patterns.
Risk level: 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…
Corsetry and lingerie built by draping fabric directly on the body to study how it moves and holds, rather than starting from a flat pattern, then structured and decorated with a cluster of hand and specialist-machine techniques.
A contemporary Italian studio practice exemplified by Rome-based artist Sandra Di Giacinto: recycled corrugated cardboard is cut, shaped, layered and pleated into lightweight wearable forms, then finished with metallic pigment.
A contemporary Italian jewelry-making method developed by Marcella Stilo under the Cartalana name: recovered paper is hand-spun using a spindle into a workable fiber-like material, then formed into lightweight jewelry and combined where…
The making of the launeddas — a triple-pipe polyphonic wind instrument made from cane, unique to Sardinia and among the oldest continuously played musical instruments in Europe (documented in bronze Nuragic figurines from 1000 BC) —…
The production of hand-painted tin-glazed floor and wall tiles — riggiole — for Sicilian Baroque interiors, characterized by the rich polychrome palette of Arab-Norman and Spanish colonial influence and the narrative or geometric…
Dense hand embroidery in silk floss, usually white or pastel on dark silk, worked on the saris, jackets (jhabla) and borders (kor) of the Parsi community of Gujarat and Mumbai.
Heer embroidery is the densely worked silk thread embroidery tradition of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, practiced by women of the Kathiawari Brahmin, Koli, and Mer communities.
A distinctive self-couched embroidery stitch — long laid stitches tacked down at a 45-degree angle — developed in Spanish colonial New Mexico to decorate wool coverlets, church vestments, and altar cloths, understood by scholars as one of…
Chikankari is a delicate hand embroidery tradition originating in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, worked primarily in white thread on fine white or pastel fabric — traditionally muslin, now also georgette and chiffon.
The hand-cut, folded, and stitched appliqué textile art of Cairo's tentmakers, produced along the historic Street of the Tentmakers (Sharia al-Khayamiya) just south of Bab Zuwayla in Islamic Cairo, one of the last surviving medieval…
Phulkari — literally 'flower work' — is a counted thread embroidery tradition from Punjab worked predominantly on khaddar (coarse handspun cotton cloth) using silk floss in a darn stitch from the reverse of the fabric.