Cavandoli 2.0 Workshop

May 5 & 6, 2012

Bemidji, Minnesota

Cavandoli is a knotting technique in which double half hitches are knotted in a continuous fashion, with no loose thread or spaces between the knots creating a woven-like tapestry. Traditionally two colors are used and patterns are created by alternating horizontal and vertical double half hitches. See earlier entry on Cavandoli and who was Valentina Cavandoli. 


Cavandoli 2.0 will take you beyond the two color limitation. A series of techniques will provide you with the tools for color control and to be able to bring a color exactly where you want it. With the use of wire armatures, vertical, horizontal and reverse double half hitches, we will create module like textile pieces. Texture and relief will be explored. The pieces we will create will be planned and structured. These modules will become the focus pieces for a beaded opera length infinity neckpiece with no clasp, or a cartouche style medallion. 

Registration for the two day workshop is $80, plus a $12 material fee (+ an extra $24 for the beads for infinity neckpiece)

-> Macrame Collective for registration

This workshop is organized by SoulCandy of Macrame Collective and made possible with funding from the Minnesota Region 2 Arts Council. If you have not visited Macrame Collective, a brand new website on macrame, you are in for a treat!  


In addition C-lon is a class sponsor providing each student with a spool of C-Lon Bead Cord for the class project as well as a full collection of C-Lon Bead Cord to share. 

This class is a bargain. So plan to join us, pack your bags and head up north in May. I look forward to going to Bemidji and teaching this class. I had fun designing the pieces for this class. I am still planning one more class project, so there will have three designs/color schemes to choose from with color variations. Keep in mind that Cavandoli is a slow process with lots of knots per square inch, so the projects will most likely not be finished in class. In the meantime, practice your double half hitches. It will make all the difference! - Marion

Thinking about Macrame on Columbus Day...

Today during my son's music rehearsal with the Peninsula Youth Orchestra, I got a chance to walk along the Redwood Shore Bay Trail. It is part of The Bay Trail Project, a walking and biking trail that goes all around the Bay. While walking I watched the human development along the way, like the Oracle Buildings, and the wild life like the Belmont Slough, a jack rabbit, many birds and the crescent moon in the western sky.

Since today is Columbus Day, I also had a chance to ponder on the court of Isabella of Spain which sent Columbus to discover the Americas, the impact this court has had on world history and the development of the American continent, including the human development I was gazing at while walking. It reminded me also closer to home on how this court was responsible for the first 'Macrame Craze' way back in the 15th and 16th century.

Macrame work done in the 16th Century

Parts of Spain had been under Moorish rule for almost 800 years. The Moor civilization was artistic, scientific and commercial, but also incredibly tolerant of other races and cultures. During part of its rein, Muslim, Christian and Jewish culture were able to flourish together in relative peace. Ferdinand and Isabella recaptured Spain with the fall of Granada in 1492, but some Moors remained and continued to have an impact on Spain's culture. Later on Isabella also started the Spanish Inquisition after having a vision... Talk about bad juju... But back to my main topic...

Macrame is one of the cross cultural exchange from this period. The word macrame comes from Arabic and means either towel or fringe and would have then described the knotted fringes on tablecloth or shawls fashioned with knots. Macrame spread from Queen Isabella's court to the other courts of Europe, France and Italy. Macrame had a revival with Macrame Lace during the Victorian Era in England in the 19th century, along side with also the golden age of nautical knotting and fancy rope work. Sailors, mostly on whaling ships, would fashion work during quiet times to sell at port of calls for extra income.

Later in the beginning of the 20th century Cavandoli became the name for a specialty or branch of macrame started by Valentina Cavandoli, a teacher in Italy (See my earlier blog on Valentina Cavandoli).

Much of the knotting and macrame work done in the past was outstanding and is still a source of inspiration to this day.

Cavandoli - What is it? - And who was Tina Cavandoli?

I encountered the term 'Cavandoli' when my work was described as Cavandoli work without truly understanding at first what it described. I later found just a few mentions of Cavandoli describing the knotting technique and attributing its name to a teacher in Italy. So a year or so ago, out of frustration after finding very little little information when I was researching to get ready for a lecture on Cavandoli Knotting at Bead Designer International in the Boston area, I asked one of my sister who lives in Ticino, next to Northern Italy to help me. After searching online, she mentioned right away Elisa Ricci, whom I was already familiar with and a book by Gisella Tamagno Gazzola, called 'Bricco E Cavandoli due favole in punta d'ago/ Bricco and Cavandoli: two fairy tales on a needle'. Amazingly this book was published bilingually, in Italian and English, making it much more accessible as my Italian is not fluent, and within this book I found the answers to my many questions: who was Valentina Cavandoli? In which century did she live? And why was this technique named after her?



Cavandoli is a knotting techniques in which double half hitches are used in a continuous fashion without any loose thread in between the knots. Each double half hitch is done by one thread over another by making two half hitches in sequence. This process creates an incredibly tightly woven like fabric with a 'warp and weft'. By using different colors for the warp and weft, patterns can be achieved by switching the knotting cord with anchor cord and conversely, warp becoming weft and conversely. Cavandoli evolved from Macrame, the ancient Arab technique usually done with openwork (loose thread) for fringes, shawls or table cloth. The term macrame is derived from Arabic for coverlet or Turkish for towel. Elisa Ricci, an eminent Italian historian on lace, is credited for giving the name of 'Cavandoli' to this technique. So let's explore how this come about.

Example of 16th Century Macrame from Old Italian Lace by Elisa Ricci, 1913

I learned from Gisella's book that Valentina Cavandoli was born in 1872 in Reggio Emilia. She became a teacher and with her natural talent, later a headmistress. She took a course in the Montessori method and started a very unique experiment when in 1915 she became in charge of a school for children in need of assistance. Most of them came from families affected by the war or tuberculosis. Tina managed the school 'Casa del Sol' with an attentive and loving attitude and no problems arose. One of the methods she used to obtain such great results was allocating a slip of paper, a token, every evening to each child who had been well behaved. When 10 tokens were obtained, the child received a prize. But when the child was not behaving, he or she had to hand over collected tokens. She also instilled feelings of solidarity and justice by having children who received outside sources of foods or money from relatives and friends share with their friends who did not have any relatives outside the school. The recreational activities within the school included manual tasks. Tina taught the children a technique she had learned from her grandmother Virginia Lamberti who was an expert on macramé, especially the creation of colorful pieces of textile which became known as 'Cavandoli'.

'Casa del Sol' was truly a unique school. Both boys and girls knotted these pieces of textile that demanded time, attention, precision and discipline. They would have to apply basic math to copy patterns. The objects they created were sold in markets organized by the school and the money collected was placed in savings for each child. The amount each child would collect would vary, but it would provide them with some money when they left the school. The school had to close in 1936, as the Jewish community who had been its main supporter was facing their own many serious problems. Tina Cavandoli stopped teaching then and moved with one of her student's family. She died in 1969 after receiving the Italian gold medal 'on behalf of Public Teaching'.



Gisella Tamagno Gazzola's book shows the type of work the children did in Casa del Sol. It is very similar to work I have seen in books such as The Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Rope Work by Raoul Graumont and John Hensel, 1939 or the DMC Library Book Macrame, 1971.

A section of Gisella's book is dedicated to the actual technique with a well illustrated sequence showing how to knot the two-color version of Cavandoli Knotting.

Grazie Mille, Gisella, for filling in this part of the puzzle with your research of Tina Cavandoli's life.

Note: The artists I know, including myself, who have pursued this slow and intricate creation of Cavandoli knotted work, have often pioneered methods and personal approach to this art form surpassing the limitation of working with two colors and the two dimensional fabric this method tends to create.