The Silk of the Sea or Byssus
Silk is usually made from the cocoons spun by silkworms - but there is another, much rarer, cloth known as sea silk or byssus, which comes from a clam. Chiara Vigo is thought to be the only person left who can harvest it, spin it and make it shine like gold.
What is Byssus?
The bracelet is made of an ancient thread, known as byssus, which is mentioned on the Rosetta stone* and said to have been found in the tombs of pharaohs. One of its remarkable properties is the way it shines when exposed to the sun, once it has been treated with lemon juice and spices. Some believe it was the cloth God told Moses to lay on the first altar. It was the finest fabric known to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Actually it is a raw material comes from the glistening aquamarine waters that surround the Sardinian island of Sant'Antioco.
Who is Chiara Vigo?
Vigo is the only person in Italy who still harvests it. It was her grandmother who taught her the art of working and embroidering with byssus. She in turn had learned it from her own mother, and so on, back through the generations. "Weaving the sea silk is what my family has been doing for centuries," , "The most important thread, for my family, was the thread of their history, their tradition." Vigo says They have never made a penny from it, she points out. She herself married a coal miner, and they live on his pension and the occasional donation.
She does it early in the morning, to avoid attracting too much attention, and is accompanied by members of the Italian coastguard - this is a protected species. It takes 300 or 400 dives to gather 200g of material. Then she starts weaving it, but as the sign on the door says, it is not for sale. She gives the fabric to people who come to her for help. It may be a couple who have decided to marry or who have married, a woman who wants a child, or one who has recently become pregnant. Byssus is believed to bring good fortune and fertility.
In the evening, Vigo spends a couple of hours teaching people how to weave with byssus. After that, at sunset, I go with her to a deserted cove where she prays twice a day. Her chant, which mixes ancient Sardinian dialect and Hebrew, echoes off the rocks.
One thing that will be is that Vigo's daughter - currently a student in northern Italy - will one day tread in her mother's footsteps. "My daughter, although I will leave very little to her, will have to continue this tradition," she says, "so humankind can benefit from it."
Gabriel Hagai, professor of Hebrew Codicology, Paris.
Vigo is "the last remnant" of a combination of Jewish and Phoenician religious practices that was once far more widespread in the Mediterranean. This craft combined folklore and religion [but] she has allowed us to reconstruct a forgotten and missing part of our history." Even now, there are still a few elderly women in Apulia (the heel of Italy) who can weave it, She says, but none who can make it shine, or dye it with traditional colors, in the way that Vigo can. And Vigo is the only person in Italy who still harvests it.
*The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences among them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Courtesy: BBC's Magazine
Silk is usually made from the cocoons spun by silkworms - but there is another, much rarer, cloth known as sea silk or byssus, which comes from a clam. Chiara Vigo is thought to be the only person left who can harvest it, spin it and make it shine like gold.
What is Byssus?
The bracelet is made of an ancient thread, known as byssus, which is mentioned on the Rosetta stone* and said to have been found in the tombs of pharaohs. One of its remarkable properties is the way it shines when exposed to the sun, once it has been treated with lemon juice and spices. Some believe it was the cloth God told Moses to lay on the first altar. It was the finest fabric known to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Actually it is a raw material comes from the glistening aquamarine waters that surround the Sardinian island of Sant'Antioco.
Who is Chiara Vigo?
Vigo is the only person in Italy who still harvests it. It was her grandmother who taught her the art of working and embroidering with byssus. She in turn had learned it from her own mother, and so on, back through the generations. "Weaving the sea silk is what my family has been doing for centuries," , "The most important thread, for my family, was the thread of their history, their tradition." Vigo says They have never made a penny from it, she points out. She herself married a coal miner, and they live on his pension and the occasional donation.
She does it early in the morning, to avoid attracting too much attention, and is accompanied by members of the Italian coastguard - this is a protected species. It takes 300 or 400 dives to gather 200g of material. Then she starts weaving it, but as the sign on the door says, it is not for sale. She gives the fabric to people who come to her for help. It may be a couple who have decided to marry or who have married, a woman who wants a child, or one who has recently become pregnant. Byssus is believed to bring good fortune and fertility.
In the evening, Vigo spends a couple of hours teaching people how to weave with byssus. After that, at sunset, I go with her to a deserted cove where she prays twice a day. Her chant, which mixes ancient Sardinian dialect and Hebrew, echoes off the rocks.
One thing that will be is that Vigo's daughter - currently a student in northern Italy - will one day tread in her mother's footsteps. "My daughter, although I will leave very little to her, will have to continue this tradition," she says, "so humankind can benefit from it."
Gabriel Hagai, professor of Hebrew Codicology, Paris.
Vigo is "the last remnant" of a combination of Jewish and Phoenician religious practices that was once far more widespread in the Mediterranean. This craft combined folklore and religion [but] she has allowed us to reconstruct a forgotten and missing part of our history." Even now, there are still a few elderly women in Apulia (the heel of Italy) who can weave it, She says, but none who can make it shine, or dye it with traditional colors, in the way that Vigo can. And Vigo is the only person in Italy who still harvests it.
*The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences among them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Courtesy: BBC's Magazine
