As a final excursion of HAND we decided to visit local workshops to discover traditional handicrafts that are still alive in our region. The perfect place to do so is Pitigliano, a small village in the south of Tuscany and only a 30 minutes drive from our school. In the beautiful out town we can still find artists and their workshops like in old times.
We start our tour at Marcos place, he has since 40 years a little workshop and creates unique jewellery made of silver, copper and zink. He was so happy to receive us as guests and explained all the children wanted to know. When he noticed the enthusiasm of the kids he even offered to let them create a ring each using his tools. What a gift! While creating he shared the fact that he started in an office job and then turned his passion in work, even if he doesn’t like to call it work, because its still fun! And in each piece you find in the shop you can see the love he puts.
The next stop is the ‘Workshop of Recycling’, a little shop and workshop of Vera who turns old tractor and car wheels into creative accessories. She told us that her aim was to create something using ‘rubbish’ without the need to buy a lot of material. Her work consists in asking around who has pieces to throw, collecting them, doing a quality control, cleaning them and then transforming the found treasures in bags, belts and jewellery. The kids are impressed and offer to bring their old bicycle wheels.
The third visit is in Maria Lauras weaving room. She is the last weaver in Pitigliano and shows us the big loom she is currently working on, weaving beautiful scarfs made of different natural fibres. The kids observe curiously how patterns appear depending on how she is moving the feet on the pedals. Maria Laura is sharing the difficulties in living from this work but you see her passion in all the beautiful fabrics and accessories in the shop.
Walking in the village we discover another little shop of a woman that creates beautiful sculptures made of clay. She invites us to have a look and we share our experience from the workshop we did.
Another entrance that catches our attention is the felt-workshop of Agnese. She explained briefly how to create a piece by using only warm water, wool and soap and offers us to give us a workshop one day.
Last but not least we arrive in the shop of Lorenzo and his wife. His father was already weaving chests, he can share the tradition of this region and where to fine the right material in nature. More over he has a deep cave behind the shop where the children played for a while. Lorenzos art of chest weaving and wood work is unique and he is happy to collaborate in the future by organising weaving workshops with the children.
We concluded the day with a beautiful walk in the ‘Via Cava’ in the forest, to refresh a bit at a water source and are grateful for the insights of today. Reflecting together the jewellery workshop was the most fascinating one.
