L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 8 ELIZABETH SALTHOUSE R arer than diamonds, more expensive than platinum and found only in a few secret Sardinian sea caves, seasilk is the stuff of legend. Its long silky filaments blaze like gold in sunlight and are gos- samer light even when delicately woven into fabric. But the art is dying out and today less than a handful of local ladies know the secret of this mermaid silk. Let's take a closer look. Mankind has been making cloth and textiles for over 70,000 years. It was the natural evolu- tion from wearing fur and animal skins and one of the factors that helped people to adapt to new environments. Originally animal hair and vegetation were spun into threads that could be woven together. Gradually techniques were invented to interlace the threads giving us weaving, knit- ting, crocheting, knotting and even plaiting. And today we have a multitude of fabrics to choose from including wool, silk, linen and even synthetics. But you won't find byssus, commonly known as seasilk, in any fabric shop or haberdashery, mainly because makers of this unusual cloth fiercely refuse to sell it, believing it belongs to everyone. In fact you'll be hard- pressed to find byssus at all unless you visit one of the few makers still living or a museum with some of the 60 known pieces as it's one of the rarest textiles in the world. So what on earth is it made from and why is it so rare? Byssus has long been the stuff of myth and mystery. Some claim it was mentioned as long ago as in biblical texts but the truth is a little more tangible, if still incredible. The raw material is harvested from wild animals, starting out as fibers that can be cut from the organism. It causes them no harm but the fibers aren't animal hair. It's more accurate to say that byssus is similar to silk worm thread as it's the product of animal secretions. Instead of a worms, however, the producer is an underwater crea- ture, the giant pen shell pinna nobilis bivalve (2 shell) clam. The sea creature, which lives in a few closely guarded sea caves off the coast of Sardinia and Puglia, can grow up to a meter in length so needs strong adhesive to glue its weight securely to the cave rocks or sea bed as it feeds in the current. And the animal's solution is rather nifty. Instead of using its foot to grasp on, it uses a gland in its sole to secrete long, soft protein strands that harden in salty seawater to connect and anchor its calcium shell to the rock. And it's this beard of strong, fibrous threads, often up to 6 inches in length, which is the basis for byssus. There's no denying that nature is beautiful, but if you saw what these raw, simple mol- lusc whiskers after harvesting you'd be hard pressed to imagine how to turn them into the flaxon filaments that form seasilk. That's where the magic and a few devoted local ladies come in. The process of harvesting silkworms for their fibers began back in China over 5 millennia ago but no-one's quite clear when divers started harvesting the pen shell mollusc threads or how they realised what they could become. The two silks share one tradition, however, as the secrets of worm silk and seasilk were originally fiercely protected, feeding into the myths and rarity value of both. And even today, whilst Chinese silk is now well known, only half a dozen Sardinian weavers are believed to possess the full process for byssus production. I say half a dozen, but in fact, there are no official figures of how many seasilk weavers still exist. One lady, Chiara Vigo, is often dubbed "the last" in the long line of artisanal producers. But whilst it makes a wonderful- ly romantic story, there are at least two others – Sant'Antioco sisters Giuseppina and Assuntina Pes – who learned the alchemist's recipe from Efisia Murroni who was taught by local legend Italo Diana in the 1950s. And probably others too who practice in private. All, however, stay true to the tradition passing their knowledge down through female lines to their daughters, nieces, friends and neighbors and maintaining the seasilk oath that prevents the golden cloth being bought, sold or commercialized. The process starts with an early morning seasilk prayer before the ladies dive to the depths where the pen shells live. The byssus can be trimmed using a sharp knife but when you con- sider that it can take up to 100 dives to collect a single, solitary ounce of threads (approximately 25 grams) then you begin to understand the phenomenal rarity of this cloth and the amazing devotion of duty of the ladies. Once harvested, the unique fibers are soaked in seawater then washed in freshwater. They're combed out to remove knots and snags then spun together into a strong, fine thread using old tra- ditional spindle spinning tech- niques. And finally, the alchemy takes place. The thread is dipped in fresh Sardinian lemon juice to reveal the colour that ranges from a darker bronze to a light, golden blonde. It's a truly laborious process but the results make it all worth- while as the gossamer golden fil- aments are woven into light, warm cloth that's even finer than silk. No wonder, then, that seasilk was originally reserved for royalty and priests as only kings or the church could afford such an extravagance. Today EU protection curtails most of the old harvest meaning the artisans can rarely collect enough to weave even a small patch of cloth. And if the sea shell populations continue to decline, the gathering may be halted forever. But for now, before the golden filaments dis- appear altogether, the ladies embroider them onto baptismal clothes, wedding dresses or priests vestments, even winding them around the wrist of a person in need as a seasilk charm. If you want to see this magical, mysteri- ous mermaid silk, this cloth from the sea, you'd better be quick, however. Its manufacture may be one part alchemy, one part chem- istry and one part Mother Nature, but no-one knows how much longer its thread will weave its way through Sant'Antioco's fam- ilies and Sardinian history. We'd best say an oath to the sea. Sardinian seasilk, the world's rarest thread LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE Today, only a handful of women knows how to weave byssus, Chiara Vigo is one of them The raw fiber is produced by a large bivalve clam called pen shell Byssus fabric is so rare and fragile only about 60 garnments made of it are believed to exist

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