Tessanda Handweaving Mill and der European Textile & Craft Award

11 October 2024

]The European Textile Academy, an independent international platform for interdisciplinary knowledge transfer in the textile industry, organises the European Textile & Craft Award.

The aim is to recognise outstanding achievements in contemporary and traditional craftsmanship, art professions, and their connection to the world of design. In 2024, Tessanda won first prize in the Textile Craft category.

Tessanda

The Tessanda handweaving mill in Sta. Maria (Canton Graubünden) was founded in 1928 to offer women a job and the opportunity to receive recognised professional training as handweavers. Tessanda was established under the patronage of the ‘Società ütil public Val Müstair’, a non-profit association that has existed since 1910.

At the same time as the Tessanda was being set up, the ‘Società ütil public Val Müstair’ association also founded the Sta. Maria school, which is still active today and where the two-week block courses for prospective weavers from all over Switzerland still occur thrice a year.

The school in Sta. Maria is the smallest in Switzerland and is supervised by the ‘Società ütil public Val Müstair’. Tessanda has been an independent foundation since 1955.

Today, Tessanda is one of three professional handweaving mills in Switzerland and an important cultural asset of Val Müstair. It still weaves by hand on wooden looms, some over a hundred years old. Currently, 17 well-trained and experienced hand weavers and seamstresses work at Tessanda.

Linen

A hundred years ago, flax was still being cultivated in Val Müstair. The women of Müstair spun their yarn and wove shirts, bed linen, kitchen towels, etc., by hand on their traditional looms. Most of the textiles were for their use.

Processing the harvested flax plants into natural linen yarn is laborious and arduous. That is why the flax fields gradually disappeared from Val Müstair and the whole of Switzerland. Processing became too expensive.

However, flax fields are not only good sources of yarn but also very valuable for promoting biodiversity. The Val Müstair Biosphere Nature Park and the Tessanda launched the Reintroduction of Flax in the Val Müstair project in 2021. Since then, two farmers and private individuals have planted and harvested flax.

The first flax harvest took place in October 2023. After harvesting the dried flax plants, people met to process them together. The stems were fluted, broken, and then chewed on old equipment. The last harvest occurred on 12 October at the Tessanda premises in Sta. Maria.

(Source and further information: Handweberei Tessanda, Sta. Maria)

Museum d’engiadina bassa Scuol

Exhibition about Tessanda in the museum and Chalandamarz