The textiles you find here are museum-quality works of art made with love and care by Sardinia’s tessitrici artigianali, women who have dedicated their lives to the nearly-lost art of traditional handweaving.
Woven one at a time, on looms powered entirely by hand and foot, these unique textiles are technically precise, astonishingly beautiful, and possess an unquantifiable essence that serves as a portal to something we seek yet may not be able to describe.
This indescribable quality is invisible in a photo, yet the essence and true beauty of a handwoven textile becomes tangible when you hold the weaving in your hands—and even when you see the textile across a room. You feel the anima, the spirit of the weaver, present in every article she weaves.
The soul of the weaver is infused in the textile through the care and loving attention she has for her art. It’s infused from the weaver’s being present in each moment and attentive to the single thought, single task, single person present in that moment.
In each handwoven textile, you feel the radiance of love, of presence, of individual yet intangible spirit brought into tangible form. Beautiful form. This is the magic of fine art.
Each thread of every handwoven textile is manually placed and counted. Each row of every handmade textile is manually woven and compressed. The process is difficult, complicated, physically demanding, and time-intensive. Handweavers must necessarily love their art to weave—and the weaver’s loving attention and spirit goes into each fiber of every textile she creates.
The dedication to the process of handweaving makes the lives of the tessitrici artigianali inseparable from their art. Few persist in the profession of handweaving, and the handful of professional handweavers in Sardinia are generally overlooked in the world of art as well as in the world of commerce.
Yes, the anima of art, the artist, the culture is present in all art. And that the weavers and textiles featured here are Sardinian is a crucial element of the incommunicable essence of their quiet splendor.
Sardinia is an ancient and powerful land, as overlooked and understated as her handweavers. The spirit, the strength, the wisdom, the nature, the beauty, and the history of the island are beyond description. This ineffable anima of Sardinia is present in the the food, the ancient buildings, the stories, the art, the weavings— and every moment and every act of Sardinia’s people.
Bringing to the world this incommunicable essence of Sardinia, her people, her handwoven textiles, in a respectful, sustainable manner that benefits Sardinia and her people, is what I seek to do with Sardinian Arts. In short, I serve as a tramite, a conduit to the weavers and to Sardegna.
To this end, you’ll find much information on this site about the weavers, how they work, and Sardinia. And there’s always more to experience, to see, to learn, to communicate!
Please see the other areas of this website for more information, to enquire about purchasing textiles, having me talk with you or present to your group, visiting Sardegna, learning how the women work, connecting with the weavers, and more!
Learn more about Sardinian Arts and Kelly
Learn about the artists in Meet the Artists; see News and Events for updates.
Learn about how the artists work in The Art of Handweaving; see News and Events for updates.
Learn about the island in Sardinia; see News and Events for updates.
Find additional resources on the pages for individual artists and in Links.
Find definitions, explanations, tours, news, updates, referrals, and more in News and Events.
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