Layers of Meaning

Fossilized Textiles

Luisa Cevese creates "Fossilized Textiles" out of industry waste: "large blocks of unusable end pieces, damaged fabric, yarns and threads, salvages, small pieces of uneven cloth, cuts from garments... Riedizioni doesn't discriminate between natural or man made fibres, the only criteria is to select the textile which enables us to produce a constant design out of a discontinuous element."

From this, she creates a variety of practical household and fashion items. An article in Metropolis magazine explains Cevese's process: "The company is just one of many that supplies Cevese with silk and tie remnants for her Riedizioni line. She fixes these leftovers in large sheets of resin then cuts them into handbags, change purses, floor mats, place mats, and blinds."

Recently Cevese received some antique fabrics and a new concept was launched. "Getting that textile was purely accidental, but something clicked,” Cevese says. “I decided that if I cut it into a bag it would be a nice decoration, but fixing it in resin as a whole expresses the history of the object much more strongly." These works are carried by the US Store, Moss. Their internet catalog describes one work: "'Tappeti da Tavolo', or table runners, are mosaics created from vintage table laces, cottons, linens, and embroideries, each worn from personal use, but now 'fossilized' in polyurethane."

Examples of Cevese's fossilized textiles:
mosaics from vintage tablecloths
Pages from the textile archive, discolored by age, eaten by worms and insects and filled with hand written notations.
Recontextualized wool prayer rugs from various parts of the former Soviet Union.

Cevese sums up her philosophy: "My objective is to find the simplest solution which involves, in the widest possible sense, the minimum of waste."
Moss store images by Davies + Starr