Textile Arts Fair: Fabrics, Fashion & Food

 

The Textile Arts Festival is returning to Piazza Santa Croce for the first weekend of November (2-3), from 9 am to 7 pm. Offering sustainable fashion, organic food products and child friendly workshops, the unique exhibition-market is an unmissable event for lovers of all things textile. 

La Fierucola has been hosting artisan markets in Florence since 1984, connecting small business owners who have one of a kind artisan products to the residents of the city. The values of tradition, durability and natural materials remain at the core of The Textile Arts Festival.

The range of craftsmen and women will include weavers, spinners, dyers, felters, knitters and seamstresses from across the country. The star of the show will be the local wool, made on small Italian farms, alongside artisanal yarns and fabrics. Everything from woollen socks and jumpers to hand-made dolls will be on show to admire and buy.

Together with the market, there will be an array of free workshops for adults and children that will teach visitors new techniques and maybe even inspire a new hobby. There will be a weaving workshop for children on Saturday and Sunday from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm and from 3.30 to 6.30 pm. On Saturday from 12.30 to 1.30 pm there will be a workshop where kids will have the opportunity to make their own Christmas decorations by learning the Macramé technique. Another event will be a demonstration of how fabrics are dyed with vegetable inks, to create bright and sustainable colourful pieces (Saturday from 3.30 to 4.30 pm). On Sunday from 10 am to 12 pm there will be a demonstration of how to prepare the warp of the loom, which begins the process of weaving. 

Other events in the square will include an Arti e Mestieri (Arts and Crafts) fashion show organised by the Manitese association; clothes made by the artists and farmers with special traditional techniques will be on show on Sunday.

This will be taking place in the context of an organic market selling a variety of cheeses, honeys and other fresh produce.

For the full program: www.lafierucola.org.