L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Offida's Via del Merletto: the road of lace ELIZABETH SALTHOUSE N estled high above the valleys of the Tesino and Tronto rivers , the medieval village of Offida is known for three things: its sixteenth century fortress, its Piceno DOC wine and the Via del Merletto, home to pillow spun lace. Gossamer-thin, intri- cate designs float in the village's shop fronts and, inside, ladies deftly juggle bobbins loaded with silk, cotton or even gold threads, weaving designs that date back centuries. Let's take a closer look at Offida's merletto al tombolo. No-one's quite sure when lacemaking started in Offida, or the world for that matter. Floren- tine noble Caterina de Medici is often credited w ith having invented the technique in the early 1500s, evidence of needle- point lace in Venice dates back to a similar era and some even suggest it grew from the art of pas s ementerie, or braiding, which edged linen cloth in gold- en threads. Wherever it originat- ed, it soon made its way down to the old town of Offida in Le Marche, possibly via a network of convents as nuns often taught the women of the villages. Evidence of the fine Offida filigree first appeared in old fres- coes, paintings and portraits of marchigiani artists, including Maestro of Offida around 1330 and Simone de Magistris in the late 1500s. The first documen- tary evidence appears in a treaty dated 1511 confirming the dona- tion of lace to the Holy Cross Church by the Offida town coun- cil to give thanks for the ending of the 1507 plague. This all sug- gests that the cottage industry is at least 500 years old. It could even be older still, but sadly that story has been lost at the bottom of the sewing box of history. What w e do know is that Offida's merlettaie, or lace mak- ers, have produced pieces that have adorned the collars, cuffs, dresses, shirts and even armors of Le Marche's notables for cen- turies. And although it might have started as a handicraft, lacemaking became a crucial way for women to make money to sustain their families. Within a few decades, the quality and refinement of Offida lace was such that locals even began to export it, with one of the earliest existing contracts of sale showing lace being sold out- side the village in May 1612. And despite competition from fine Venetian lace, Offida lace reached the heights of popularity and appreciation in the 19 th cen- tury going on to w in many awards, more recently in the 20 th century. The technique used in Offida, known as merletto al tombolo or bobbin lace, differs from earlier Venetian techniques. Instead of simply using a needle and thread to knot, loop and stitch yarn together over a parchment design, Offida's merletto uses a complicated series of interlaced threads and spindles. And whilst Venetian lace is almost like embroidery, bobbin lace is more like weaving or braiding with anything from half a dozen to sixty different threads deftly manipulated and maneuvered by hand to create luxurious master- pieces without a needle in sight. Bobbin lace, also known as pillow lace, centers on a cush- ion, or lu capzzal, onto which is tacked a stiff piece of parch- ment. Holes are pricked through the paper along the lines of the intricate des ign that often includes flow ers , birds and nature together with precious jewels. And then an anchor pin is inserted at the start of the design and a series of paired bobbins looped over it to hang down, lying on the cushion. The bobbins, fuselli or can- n'itt, are small, smooth, turned wood reels around which threads are wound. They fit snuggly into the palm of a hand and a loop at the top acts as a brake, stopping the thread from unraveling whilst allowing a slow feed as the lacemaking progresses. As the merlettaia begins, she faces a gargantuan, almos t impossible task: interlacing fine thread by hand into lace cloth. It's undoubtedly a labor of love. Despite the complexity of the designs, however, lacemaking is fundamentally quite simple with most stitches involving a series of crisscrosses between pairs of bobbins, between neighboring bobbins or maybe even between groups of bobbins. A simple right thread over left is known as a girato stitch and two neighbors crossed is an incrocio stitch. There are plenty more, too: from the Offida cantù to the Punto Venez ia (V enice point) and Punto Rinascimento. And with those under your belt, and a few years' practice, you can start making lace as bobbin pairs swiftly switch and swap gradual- ly knitting the delicate cloth. Together with the cushion and bobbins, there's one final key piece of equipment for the lace maker; her pins, known in English as pricklets. As the design grows, leaves unfurl and flower petals bloom gradually covering the parch- ment drawing. The threads need to be kept in place and held tight as the design develops, so that they don't stretch or twist out of shape. To help her with this, each merlettaia has a couple of dozen pins pricked into her cush- ion, or a little pincushion. And every few stitches or so - or as the design comes to a junction, or to create a decorative loop - the lace maker inserts a pricklet to anchor the threads and stop the loop from closing as the bob- bins continue their merry dance. It's a time-consuming busi- ness so the early lace makers of Offida took to sitting in their doorways, pillow balanced on a tiny table or chair in front of them, so they could enjoy the day chatting with their neighbors in the s hade of the hous es . Skilled lace makers didn't even look as their nimble, deft hands juggled the spindles, clickety- clacking the wooden bobbins over and under each other to weave their wondrous designs. It must have been mesmerizing to see an entire street of merlattaie at work. And with their children playing or sitting at their feet, stitches and patterns could easily be passed from nonna to nipote, mamma to figlia, keeping the tra- dition alive. Later, the first school of lace- making was opened in 1910 with courses designed to promote the artisan craft to the next genera- tion. It's fascinating to think that the Offida technique of bobbin lacemaking has remained practi- cally the same for more than four centuries. More recently, the village opened a Lace M us eum and erected a monument to merletto al tombolo too, sculpted by local Aldo Sergiacomi. Lace Week, at the beginning of J uly, helps bring bobbin lace makers togeth- er from across the region and beyond, to promote Offida lace and to encourage youngsters to have a go. Offida's lace is also trademarked now, guaranteeing the quality and source of the pre- cious product against fakes and machined lace. And there's one particular street, the Via del Mer- letto or Lace Street, where Offi- da lace touched almost every doorway, so explanatory panels devoted to the history of lace- making were erected in 2010 to help visitors navigate the past and look to the future. O ver the centuries O ffida lacemaking s us tained w hole families with women opening lit- tle shops and exporting their prized product far and wide. Sadly today machined lace has replaced almost all hand-made lace in fashion and fewer chil- dren are taking up their mothers' or grandmothers' bobbins to con- tinue the tradition. But Offida lace still tops the heights of luxu- ry with the last few merlettaie spending weeks or even months making acces s ories , collars , s haw ls and tablew are of the highest possible standard. Their lace has been w oven dow n through over five centuries of marchigiana history, let's hope the next generation will continue the thread. Embroiderer with craft wires in the streets of the medieval city of Offida province of Ascoli Piceno © Konstantinos Papaioannou | Dreamstime.com

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