THE KIT THAT BINDS MOTHER AND DAUGHTER…
<< Rosa, come! We have to finish the pillowcase we started last night! >>.
It’s 7.30 p.m. and Rosa doesn’t want to know about sewing a useless pillowcase with her mother, “we already have so many” she thinks. She is tired, she went to school in the morning, came back and had to start studying for the next day. No one helps her to understand some of her homework, because daddy only comes home from work at dinner time, and mummy can’t do it simply because she didn’t go to school. So, every word she doesn’t know, that doesn’t fit, she has to look up in the dictionary.
Every slightly more difficult maths task takes up whole hours of her afternoons. “And after all this, I have to start sewing?” she keeps thinking, puffing. And so, every evening there was a squabble between mother and daughter, and sometimes her grandmother didn’t miss a chance to interfere, since she wanted her granddaughter to have a good set of clothes when she grew up. “Then when I’m gone, you’ll have one less person to help you complete it. But in the end, the adults always had the better of the two, and the work began: sewing, weaving, cutting threads. Mum carefully explained every little technique to her,
<< If you listen to me you will see that everything will be easier >>.
<< But what do I need it for? >> insisted the little girl.
<< Don’t you want to find a husband? >>
But there was more, and Rosa only understood this when the kit was ready, after years of work… She understood this when, once finished, her mother looked at her with pride, happiness, but with a veil of sadness in her eyes.
<<I couldn’t help you with your studies, I couldn’t pass on any particular art, but no one will ever take that away from you. I helped you with this, as your grandmother had helped me before. That is what I have passed on to you, and that will stay with you forever.>>
Every thread woven, every weft of color taking shape, every blanket, pillowcase, every object that came out of that hard work told a story: that of a mother who wants to leave something to her daughter. The kit is a bond, a relationship between past and present, a wish for life and love.
The art of macramé consists in knotting threads and cords to create ornamental textures with an Arabian character.
Born in the 12th century, this technique has in fact Arab origins and takes its name from the word Migramah, which means fringe in Arabic.
All Madonese families have, usually in their grandparents’ house, a cascia, a heavy chest containing the famous ‘trousseau’: sheets, blankets, towels, all rigorously hand-decorated with ‘puntina‘, lace of all kinds.
A trousseau was a must, and from an early age girls began to make them up with their mothers and grandmothers, as this item, made entirely by hand, represented a sort of dowry for young women ready to look for a husband… whoever had the best could aspire to a better spouse! The trousseau therefore represented, for a long time, a means of transition from youth to adulthood.
Working with yarn, with needles, crochet hooks, irons and spindles, is one of the oldest arts and requires great precision and dedication in its execution, in all its forms. The art of macramé does not require any tools other than the hands to be made: a game of interweaving which, thanks to the numerous stitches that can be made, makes it possible to create small works of art, ranging from inserts for bed and bath linen, bags and shawls, to earrings and bracelets.
The experience includes a demonstration of macramé embroidery and teaching of the technique so that visitors can create their own personalized souvenir.