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Chiara Vigo: The last woman who makes sea silk
By Max Paradiso
Sardinia
2 September 2015
Silk is usually made from the cocoons spun by silkworms - but there is another, much rarer, cloth known as sea silk or byssus,
which comes from a clam. Chiara Vigo is thought to be the only person left who can harvest it, spin it and make it shine like gold.
Villagers stare as I knock on the door of Chiara Vigo's studio, otherwise known as the Museum of Byssus, on the Sardinian island
of Sant'Antioco. One sign on the door says: "Haste doesn't live here." Another adds: "In this room nothing is for sale."
Vigo is sitting in a far corner of the room surrounded by yarns and canvasses, holding hands with a young woman
whose eyes are full of tears. She caresses her and braids a bracelet while staring intensely at the girl.
Then she hums a song with her eyes closed and fixes the bracelet on the girl's wrist. She reaches for the window and
opens the shades to let the sunlight in and instantly the dark brown bracelet starts to gleam.
The girl is flabbergasted but this is no magic.
read on...
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33691781 |
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