Clara Arpini

Nodo

Weaver | Cassano d'Adda, Italy

Recommended by

Fondazione Cologni Dei Mestieri D'Arte

Handweaving an endless dialogue of colours

Clara is self-taught and motivated by her own vision
She revives and designs furniture and furnishings for the home
Her favourite fibre is polypropylene

Born in 1987, Clara Arpini is a young craftswoman with a cultural background in humanities. Completely self-taught, she transformed a precocious passion for weaving into a successful job, starting her own business in 2014. Merging traditional hand weaving techniques with a modern design approach, she creates furnishings and home accessories, such as chairs, stools, seats, coffee tables, lampshades and rugs, working directly on the structures in her workshop in Cassano d’Adda. In her creations the dialogue between colours is limitless, she embraces the richness of contrasts. “I love to put black with other colours: this way, everything is more stylish. And I feel challenged by the different clients’ tastes, when I get into their houses” she says.

Interview

©Clara Arpini

How did your career start?: It all began with one of my grandma’s chairs that needed to be fixed. At first I worked on restoring and restyling old furniture and structures. Unexpectedly I had a lot of requests, so I realised this could be my job and soon I felt the need to design new pieces.
What about the fibre you use?: Since the beginning I’ve used the polypropylene fibre, it has wonderful qualities: produced in limitless colours, it’s very resistant, washable and recyclable. I’ve also started to introduce natural materials. I use anything that can be weaved.
Where do you find inspiration?: Everywhere. I look at images in magazines and books, online… Nature is an inexhaustible source of inspiration: the combinations and contrasts of colours, especially in birds and reptiles are stunning and infinite.
What’s your most original feature?: My technique is traditional, but the schemes I work with are more akin to the art of fabric weaving, than to fabric braiding or basketry. Using so many colours, the result of my work is more similar to (macro-) textiles.

Clara Arpini is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2014 and she started teaching in 2021