Lost crafts: The Art of Straw Weaving in Piegaro

FIVE "fiascos" from left to right:
1. An old fiasco I found in the home I live.
2. The fiasco I bought in the Piazza of Piegaro from Peppina.
3. 4. 5. The fiascos I made at the classes of straw weaving! 

News From Piegaro, Italy - The art of straw weaving around the bottle called a "fiasco" belongs nowadays to volunteers promoting the town upon appointment of the cultural association "Il Borgo". Artists give free demonstrations to tourists in the Piazza in the evenings and for 5 euros you can take a "fiasco" home with you. The association "Il Borgo" gives all the revenues from the sales of these“fiascos” to the promotion of the art of straw weaving in Italy and abroad. It is also possible to take lessons at the local Glass Museum for the same price! 

Herewith follows a description of the art from the files of the Glass Museum in Piegaro: 

"Flask production is associated  with specific workmanship, called dressing, entrusted up until the 1970s to Tuscan straw-workers of Castelfiorentino, Certaldo, Montelupo, Empoli and Colle Val D’Elsa, and to flask dressers of Piegaro who used sun-dried marsh plants (scarcia).

At first, straw work was done inside the glasswork factories. Then, because of increased production, the containers were taken to the dressers’ homes. This activity served to supplement the modest domestic budget, or even maintain it completely, especially in moments of crisis. The women used to do piecework, for very long hours, often even after supper and on Sunday morning. They would work seated on little stools since this enabled them to hold the flask better.

Technique and Instruments

The scarcia was always kept soaked in water so that it would not break when used and would not cut the worker’s hands. When there was an urgent consignment, the women organized a work chain, leaving the best dresser to finish off the work […].

The only instruments used in this craft were often passed down from mother to daughter and included needles of various shapes and sizes, and a pair of scissors. The plants used to obtain the sala or scarcia were picked on the banks of the lakes or marshes. The scarcia was also used for the padded parts of the chairs.

fiasco on the left: binding technique,
fiasco on the right winding technique,
 classical of Piegaro.

The two most common working techniques were binding, where leaves of scarcia were inserted vertically between the base and the shoulder of the flask, and winding, which was used to cover a certain type of flask, the pulcianella, in which a cord made of interweaved leaves started at the base of the flask and was wound round up to the shoulder. A short cord was added to the finished flask to make it easier to carry when holding more than one container in the same hand".

(Credits: from the leaflets of the Glass Museum in Piegaro).

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Your staying in Piegaro: Visit the website of my friends Colleen Simpson and Tom Webb, owners of L'Antica Vetreria:  the first glass factory in Piegaro from the 13th century is now a beautiful Villa! www.anticavetreria.net.