Flax farming and processing

In Peio Valley the linen-weaving know-how was re-discovered and today it's the focus of many initiatives.

Description

Flax, together with the textile made by its fibres, linen (Linum in latin), is one of the focal values of the Peio Ecomuseum. It gives the name to the L.I.N.U.M. (Lavorare Insieme per Narrare gli Usi della Montagna, an acronym that means “Working Together for Telling the Mountain Customs”) Association, which was the starting point for the creation of the Peio Ecomuseum and still is its linchpin. Flax was an important plant in the Alps rural home economy: it was used by the farmers' women to tailor sheets, towels and dresses, often embellished by hand-made embroideries. Usually each family had its linen-cultivated fields and produced its own spun linen, but only some owned the handloom: the women brought their spun linen to the tessadra, a woman in charge of the linen weaving.

Responsibility

Peio Ecomuseum, L.I.N.U.M. Association

Role

Such initiatives are useful both for preserving the past knowledge of the very complex processes of textile manufacturing and for promoting new ways of thinking and acting. As a matter of fact, resuming a past knowledge and know-how, as flax processing, means also resuming a pre-modern way of life and understanding the value of hand-made work. Regional importance.

Potential usability

The linen-weaving know-how was handed down to a group of Peio women by Maria Grazioli, whose mother was a tessadra, and today in the Peio Valley there is a permanent group of weavers. In recent years several initiatives focusing on linen have started, such as the flax cultivation, the linen weaving laboratory – with promotes practical demonstrations during festivals and public events –, the Linum Ethnographic Track and so on. The Peio Ecomuseum community map was embroided on a hand-made linen sheet and focused on the phases of flax processing.

Images