31 March - 14 April 2025

Weaving Past into Future

Exploring Tuscan traditional craftmanship and artisan techniques

as methods for sustainability and circularity in textiles

For spring 2025, Constance from SOPRA SOTTO and Alessia from CreativeLab invite an interdisciplinary group of creatives to La Tegolaia in Tuscany to explore the theme Weaving Past into Future. This residency focuses on textiles through circular and sustainable approaches, drawing inspiration from Tuscan traditional craftsmanship and artisanal practices.

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Participants will work with locally sourced waste and scrap materials from partners and textile factories in Prato and Florence. Using traditional techniques such as embroidery, tapestry, and macramé, the residency emphasizes reusing and repurposing materials in ways that close the waste loop and align with circular principles.

Residents will experiment with applying these methods in contemporary art practices and reimagining how they could inform the textile and fashion industries on a larger scale, countering waste and hyperproduction by adopting a resourceful, heritage-inspired mindset.

Alessia will also present her research on biomaterials, offering a tangible introduction to innovative practices and their potential applications. The program will highlight the role of women in craftsmanship, interweaving themes of community, ritual, and storytelling with sustainable practices.

Through hands-on workshops, excursions, collaborations with local artisans, and experimental processes, participants will engage deeply with Tuscany’s artistic heritage and its intersection with modern practices. The residency fosters cultural exchange, connecting the region’s traditions with forward-thinking perspectives. The two-week program will culminate in a public event showcasing the residents’ processes and discoveries, emphasizing exploration over final outcomes.

INTENTION The SOPRA SOTTO residency aims to apply traditional Tuscan craftsmanship and innovative, sustainable practices, experimenting with and reinterpreting these ancient techniques through a contemporary lens. The goal is to inspire new ideas and perspectives within the textile and fashion sectors, making these traditional approaches the norm in an industry currently driven by waste, mass production, and economic gain, rather than material efficiency. The residency seeks to promote the use of discarded materials, closing the waste loop, and creating circular systems that are sustainable in the long run, establishing these principles as default practices within the industry. Artists and creatives are invited to act as thought leaders, pushing boundaries by experimenting with traditional methods that blend artisanal skills with a mindset focused on large-scale implementation. The aim is to explore how these techniques can be integrated into broader industrial processes, on a systemic level, providing forward-thinking solutions. By aligning traditional craftsmanship with sustainability, participants will investigate how circularity can become the norm-transforming the inherent wastefulness of the textile and fashion industries into systems that prioritize regeneration and resourcefulness. This exploration of tradition in the context of current systems is intended to create pathways for change, with the ultimate goal of catalyzing a broader transformation toward more circular and regenerative models within the industry. Led by Alessia Pasquini (CreativeLab) and Constance Van Berckel (SOPRA SOTTO), the residency encourages experimentation, co-creation, collaboration and innovation, with the intention of creating a ripple effect that extends beyond the immediate creative process and leaves a lasting impact.

OUR RESIDENTS & COLLABORATORS

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Alessia Pasquini

Alessia is a creative consultant and artist with a strong focus on materials. A Tuscan native, born and raised in Florence, she has worked with luxury brands in Milan and Florence, specializing in the development and research of fabrics, embroidery, and trimmings. Today, she offers material consultancy and develops custom materials for various clients in the raw material production industry. Currently, she splits her time between Amsterdam and Florence.

Her approach to materials is highly experimental, blending technical expertise with an artistic vision, which places her in the realm of trend forecasting. As she puts it, "My approach is much more experimental than technical, even though I maintain a strong technical foundation. I work with my clients to inspire and develop collections, often starting from non-textiles and experimenting in a creative, artistic way."

In recent years, Alessia has expanded her focus to include new materials, such as bio-plastics, microbial leather and is currently working on a grant she obtained in the Netherlands for her research on bio-based materials. Her goal is to continue inspiring people through her innovative materials, all while embracing a circular approach that aligns with the evolving needs of the world.

@alessiapasquini

Jordan Hunnell

Jordan Hunnell is a fashion professional with over a decade of experience in garment construction, textile techniques, and sustainable fashion. He develops recycled programs for top luxury brands and collaborates with local manufacturers to create unique, ethically made pieces showcased on international runways. His work focuses on "lower and slower" fashion, encouraging brands to adopt sustainable, small-batch, and artisanal production methods.

Based in Los Angeles, Jordan is dedicated to supporting the city’s diverse manufacturing industry, shaped by immigrant talent and generational craftsmanship.

@jordanhunnell

Lara Fank

Lara Fank is a Berlin-based fashion designer and sustainability creative in the field of fashion, degrowth and circularity - crafting community-centred and regenerative fashion futures. She has a background in circular design and production, creative direction and storytelling and merges artistic vision with grounded research and activism to drive radical sustainability in fashion.

Modularity, upcycling, zero waste pattern cutting and reworking deadstock fabrics and other waste materials are central to her design practice.

Other work includes creative storytelling around community-centred fashion and textile initiatives and facilitating practical workshops that bring communities together to build creative, commons-based and localised fashion solutions.

@larahelenef

Emma Collins

Emma Collins is a textile designer and material researcher with a Master’s degree in Play and Textiles from Design School Kolding. With over four years of experience in material research, trend analysis, and colour and material design, their work explores the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and innovative techniques, with a strong focus on sustainability. Specialising in knit design, she is currently expanding into weaving, integrating their expertise in circular design and zero-waste textile approaches. Emma has collaborated with multidisciplinary teams and co-taught an educational footwear design programme, fostering creative exchange and innovation. Passionate about material exploration, they draw inspiration from architectural textures and locally sourced materials to inform her experimental design process.

@ectextiles

Andrew Veloso Watkinson

Andrew Veloso Watkinson is a visual artist based in Arnhem, the Netherlands. Working with ceramics, drawing, textiles and video, they approach ideas and fears surrounding death through methodical, intuitive processes. Since finishing their BFA at ArtEZ, Andrew V.W. has worked both autonomously and in collaborative, collective contexts. Branching beyond solitary art making, they have given workshops and held digital and public performances focused on co-creation. Curious about every medium, Andrew looks toward method and material for possible insights and parallels to the shape of living and dying.

@_memorable_username

Jess Zamora-Turner

Jess Zamora-Turner’s practice can be described as a form of patchworking—bringing together materials, stories, and histories that weren’t meant to belong together. Her textile-based work unfolds slowly through hand-sewing, and elemental processes; she often allows rain, mud, and sunlight to shape her materials. Using reclaimed fabrics, threads, leaves, flowers, and seeds, Jess creates sculptural works that form alternative sacred landscapes—tactile reflections that softly challenge political, ecological, and cultural realities.

@jesszt

Pearl Sijmons

Pearl Sijmons is a textile artist and photographer whose work is deeply rooted in the belief that we should "appreciate what is already there." Pearl works with discarded textiles, to give them a new life. She deconstructs and reassembles them using a free embroidery technique. She sees clothing as more than waste; it holds memories and stories. She turns old garments into memory pieces. On commission, she creates custom works from personal garments to preserve the clothes and the memories with them. There is nothing that disappears forever if one keeps the memory. Her goal is to encourage people to appreciate the world around them instead of always longing for more. We often forget the beauty that is close to us. Her works highlight the beauty of our surroundings, she calls her works ‘textile landscapes’. With her vibrant, abstract representations of nature, she invites viewers to pause, reflect, and admire what is close by.

@pearlsijmons

Deniz Celiktemel

Deniz Celiktemel is a textile and fashion designer who beautifully combines ancient craftsmanship with modern technology, bringing our rich textile heritage into the present day. Her work merges traditional techniques like weaving and embroidery with contemporary processes such as laser-cutting and burnouts, creating textiles that blend cultural history with modern aesthetics.

Inspired by a passion for preserving handcrafted skills, Deniz's designs celebrate the slow and thoughtful process of textile creation. Her work reflects her dual German and Turkish heritage, inviting us to appreciate the craftsmanship and dedication that once defined textile production.

Through her position at a Jacquard weaving company, Deniz collaborates with other designers to keep these traditional techniques alive and relevant. Her creations remind us of our shared history while also shaping the future of design. Each piece she produces is a testament to high-quality craftsmanship, embodying both innovation and tradition.

@deniz_celikmetel

Wille-Meike Brand

Wille-Meike Brand (she/her) is a visual artist, currently based in Amsterdam. Her practice is an ongoing exploration of the reversibility of undervalued materials, particularly within the context of fashion waste. Through her experiment-based approach, she has developed a textile printing technique that extracts imprints from discarded garments, restoring function to overlooked materials. These imprints – consisting of threads, folds, and labels – create an abstract visual language, captured down to the fiber in one-of-a-kind prints. Her process involves deconstructing and reproducing existing imagery, resulting in an interwoven visual dialogue that bridges sculpture, fashion and installation.

@willemeikebrand