Today we went to Perugia, the capital of Umbria and perhaps also its capital of higher learning, with its university and school for Italian language for foreigners. It rained here, too - poured in fact. It was so wet that at lunch I took off my shoes and stuffed them with paper towels to dry a bit. Real pleasant image, huh? Another travel tip: bring weather proof shoes, if you've room. I digress.
First, we went to Marta's who owns a building full of Jacquard looms on which she produces exquisite designs reproduced from Renaissance paintings. Her ability to reproduce these designs on the Jacquard cards (1st computer with its 1s and 0s) and then to execute them on these work horses of weaving machines is phenomenal, especially considering that she is dyslexic.
These threads in the warp are held down by lead weights. To lift the loom to allow the bobbin to go through requires (and builds) lots of leg and core muscles.
Marta's works of art:
Marta's studio, a deconsecrated church:
Marta conserves lace from one of the last lacemakers on Lake Trasimeno:
Besides this most fascinating artist's studio, we visited the town, had a lunch of a soup sampler (delicious), and then went to the gardens of the Horticulture Department of the university. And I just lost all these photos.
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| Medieval garden at the University. |
Below are more pictures at the Horticulture Department of the Unversity in Perugia. The gardens are reproductions of medieval plans.
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