Johana Pinto, a maker from India, based in the U.K. formed an exchange team with Elena Ianselli and Arianna Moroder from Lottozero, a leading creative hub in the field of textiles, based in Italy. The team collaborated remotely in order to learn from old traditional methods and share knowledge between cultures, makers and organisations.
Intercultural dialogue played an important part in the group sessions that were organized, during the exchange. Johana was introduced to to Sicilian crafts and to a printing technique called Marchi in Romagna, Italy. The technique uses rust to develop natural prints which are produced in small artisanal quantities. On the other hand, Johana shared the “Kalamkari” technique, a traditional technique from India, which also uses rust to develop prints.
During they exchange Johana Elena and Arianna, managed to produce their screen-prints, while introducing the hand-associated qualities of warmth, comfort, and familiarity in digital means of creating textiles. They also looked into making their project sustainable and environmentally friendly by researching in fair supply, regenerating silk and a natural/nontoxic dye print paste in order to create fully biodegradable silk printed textiles. The screen printing activities took place at the workshop facilities of East London Printmakers.
