Tag: tatting

  • Sicilian Holiday

    Buona festa! It’s Ferragosto! This week marks “ferie” throughout Italy. Italians and Sicilians close up shop in the cities and flock to the sea or mountains to meet-up with friends and family to enjoy vacation. For Sicilians who live outside of Sicily, it’s a time to return to Sicily for Ferragosto-related feasts in honor of…

  • Wearable Sicilian Art

    This work of art… I mean, bracelet… was hand crafted by Marilita Borgese for Pizzi & Merletti of Palermo. Available exclusively in the U.S. from Gelsomino Imports, LLC, it was created using a technique called tatting in English. In Italian, it is known as “chiacchierino,” which literally means “little chatting” because women chat while they…

  • Delicate Craft

    Delicate enough to be framed, this lace necklace (photographed at Villa Trigona in Piazza Armerina), was created with a technique called tatting. Tatting, which is called “chiacchierino” in Italian, is a craft that’s been practiced by Sicilian women for centuries. Designs are created using thick thread that is manipulated by hand in a series of…

  • Tatting and a Little Chatting

    Signora Pipia, the mother of artist Mirella Pipia, is quite a talent herself! Here, she proudly displays earings that she crafted. With beads and specially chosen thread, really a type of high quality strings of different colors and fibers, she utilized tatting to make these exquisite pieces of jewelry. Tatting in Italian is known as…