Annalisa Francia & Clara Patella

In our projects we combine the practice of recovery/recycling (old and antique furniture, fabrics and clothing, wood waste material) and restoration with decoration with painting and handcrafted prints obtained from engravings. The hand-engraved drawings draw on an iconographic material resulting from years of study of Art history and research.

Q&A

Artist Statement

Love for our roots drives us to do this work. Giving new life to objects that come to us from the past is trying to answer the question “where are we going?”. Capitalist hyperproduction fills our lives with mostly useless goods, with limited duration and often made with poor quality materials. We look at the legacy left to us and realize that the materials and functionality of many objects are more than current. Recovering single objects and decorating them by hand makes each piece unique, unrepeatable. There is in the abandoned items and imperfection of the handmade a poetic that reflects our existence. In our work we combine experience in the world of restoration with the passion for ancient iconographic research. The work of which we provide the images is exactly this: an old “capretto” (table used as a slaughterhouse for animals for sale in the markets) handcrafted painted and printed with engravings that draw on nature and classical memory (the bucranium was a sacred symbol of sacrifice). When we find ourselves in front of an object we can perceive that it contains stories of women and men; we launch a bridge to the future often having fun, working in a pop key, with very strong colors or respecting the classicism that some objects bring with them.

What craft do you work with?

We mostly work with wood or fabrics; therefore in the restoration phase we use carpentry tools; to dye the fabrics we use natural coloring techniques; for the decorations we use shellac, waxes, colored pigments and ancient painting techniques. For handcrafted prints we use linocut technique to make the matrix and water colors to emboss the prints.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

We like to use natural materials, such as wood or natural fabrics. Even for the colors we start from the pigments that we dilute manually. For the illustrations we draw on an iconographic heritage ranging from classical to modern art. We are fascinated by the history of symbols, therefore we study communication systems of primitive civilizations, linked to dimension of worship and nature.

How do you start your creative process?

The hardest part is seeing how the materials react to each other, but it’s also the funniest part because it’s all in progress, it’s experimenting every time and being continually amazed by the infinite combinations.

How would you best describe your workspace and what tools could you not do without?

Patchwork lab is our workspace, a craft coworkig where it is possible to make use of tools and materials ranging from carpentry, to restoration, to painting, tailoring, embroidery, engravings, prints with craft techniques (including cyanotyping), to ceramics. Brushes, gouges, pigments and colors are some of the indispensable tools.

What have you learnt or the best advice you have received that you would like to share with fellow crafters?

«Your childhood will come back and we will play» is a verse by a poet, Gerardo Diego Cendoya, which we have made our own: experimenting using hands and ancient knowledge is a way to recover the childish part that inhabits us and make play a constant in life. We are two, we have learned that sharing and putting one’s experiences at the center is a reason for progress understood in its purity and charm.