Look closely at the shirt you are wearing. It is made up of minute threads woven compactly. That shirt was probably made on an industrial loom but it is still possible to have cloth woven on a manual loom, although in Malta it is a dying art.
Antoine Vella, 46, from Rabat, is the last weaver in Malta. When still much younger, he used to weave cloth, carpets, quilts and flannel shirts. Today, his main business is rugs. His father, born in 1908, used to weave the għonnella, the traditional rustic headgear of the village woman.
Sometimes, I have to work with a dehumidifier and a heater by my side, even in the middle of summer
“At the beginning of the 20th century, weaving was done by both men and women in the household. In those days there was never an idle hand. If the weather did not allow farmers to toil the land, then my father would bring out the loom,” Mr Vella said.
Five of his large looms – the devices that hold the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them – have been owned by his family for at least 200 years, passed on from one generation to the next. He built the other three looms himself.
“I would never scrap these manual ones and go for a mechanised loom, I would be eradicating the work of all the previous generations. You can improve a technique but the foundation still has to be based on the original,” he said.
The upkeep of looms is no easy task: “When you’re a weaver you also need to be a carpenter, a welder, a blacksmith. You simply have to work on improving your loom to make it more efficient.”
He talks about his trade with a passion and says that, despite the hardship of the job, he would never change it for anything in the world. “No day is ever the same for me. I wake up in the morning and I plan what I would like to do but, really and truly, nature dictates,” he said.
The weather either helps or hinders: humidity, for example, makes the thread so loose he is unable to work because it starts snapping off.
The cloth is produced when two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth.
“Sometimes, I have to work with a dehumidifier and a heater by my side, even in the middle of summer. But when I’m weaving I don’t pay attention to the heat. I am lost in a world of my own,” he said.
The thinner the thread, the longer the time it takes for the fabric to be weaved and, of course, the more expensive it is. His rugs cost from €7 to €70, can be used from both sides, are easily machine washable and will last forever.
“When I was 15, I made a set of carpets for my bedroom. When I got married I took them with me and, to date, they are still in our bedroom,” he said.
“Today, everything is disposable. My mother’s first washing machine could be used for 30 years,” he said.
He was taught the art of weaving by his mother, Modesta, who, at 75, is still a great help to him, in particular when he has commissions of large orders. “She’s as active as ever and she is a very fine brick to rely on.”
His hope is that he will be able to pass on his knowledge to apprentices, otherwise the trade will end. It would be a shame, he said, because people today had no idea where things came from.
“That is why they feel without an identity. They have no idea where things come from. Weaving allows you to be constantly in touch with nature,” he said.