Italy · Fine-Art-Adjacent Workshop Craft (paper engineering / wearable art)
Gioielli di carta filata a mano
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 appropriate with metal or stones. It is distinct from cardboard coiling or compressed-pulp processes.
Risk level: Stable · Not applicable — a contemporary design practice, not a traditional community-transmitted craft
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 tradition of carved wooden furniture from the Valle d'Aosta — Italy's smallest and most culturally distinct region, with Franco-Provençal language and Alpine identity — producing chests (coffres), cupboards (armoires), and decorative…
The hammering and shaping of copper sheet into domestic vessels, Alpine dairy equipment (copper milk pails, cheese-making cauldrons — caldaie), and decorative objects in the Valle d'Aosta — a tradition rooted in the region's transhumance…
The woodcarving tradition of the Ladin communities of the Dolomites — concentrated in Val Gardena (already covered in this archive as part of Trentino) but extending to the Ladin valleys of Badia, Fassa, and Livinallongo — with a distinct…
A tradition of linen and mixed-fiber hand-loom weaving in Friuli-Venezia Giulia — historically Italy's primary linen-growing region — producing household textiles, liturgical linen, and decorative cloth on hand looms with geometric…
The making of Sardinian traditional costume — one of the most complex and regionally differentiated in Italy, with over 360 distinct local variants — involving weaving, embroidery, sewing, and accessory making in a system where every…
A contemporary Mallorca-based jewelry practice by industrial designer Alejandra Epifani under the Cartonpia name.
The design and hand-fabrication of contemporary jewelry from corrugated cardboard and paper straws by Austrian artist Monica Peksa, part of the same wider international coiled/compressed cardboard jewelry movement documented in Italy,…
A contemporary studio practice by Karine, working as La Dentellière de Carton near Mougins on the French Riviera.
A contemporary Berlin studio practice associated with Shiori Aiba: paper is compressed into layered material, then cut and sanded to produce geometric pendants and earrings with a smooth but structurally resilient surface.
Ukiyo-e nishiki-e (浮世絵錦絵 — 'floating world brocade picture') is the multi-color woodblock printing tradition of Edo (Tokyo) — developed from 1765 by Suzuki Harunobu and producing the iconic prints of the Edo period that transformed…
A contemporary German studio practice associated with Lydia Hirte in Dresden, in which cardboard is cut and drawn into sculptural wearable forms through tension, bending and the material's resistance.