Introduced for the first time for Premju Ġieħ l-Artiġjanat Malti 2021, Category 2 – Inspiring Artisanship and Innovation through Collaboration seeks to encourage local artisans to share ideas and work together to bring in innovation to the sector, thereby enabling them to tap into markets that were previously unexploited whilst at the same time ensuring certain artisan skills are adapted to the realities of today’s world.
The winners for the first edition were:
Project: Merkaba
Artisans: Gabriella Lukacs and Annamaria Gatt
Gabriella Lukacs and Annamaria Gatt aspired to promote the traditional Maltese lace technique and increase its popularity by creating a modern, contemporary, and practical female bag collection. The bags are designed with a sustainable approach, combining different techniques, and making use of upcycled fabrics and carefully chosen, durable threads and materials.
With the intention of promoting traditional Maltese lace making techniques, the Merkaba collection is dedicated to the Maltese bobbin lace heritage and to all those that contribute to safeguarding this endangered craft. The collection combines three different techniques – Maltese bobbin lace, crochet, and macramé, with the bespoke service allowing for personalized colour and size requests.
Upon being awarded funding the team looked deeply into the Maltese lace making tradition, and its unique patterns so as to grasp how best to combine them with modern shapes and styles, developing them into contemporary wearable pieces. In fact, it was with the assistance of local lace makers, and long hours of testing that the colourful 100% cotton eco-yarns, and soft cotton polo yarns were chosen to create a series of unique zero-waste handbags and accessories made with love for craftsmanship, fashion, and tradition.
The main components of the Merkaba collection are: the La Fleur de La Vie, a crossbody lace bag with a fashionable inner compartment ideal to hold one’s phone and other accessories during a high profile event; the Mini Bag, a limited edition bag with braided handles and a stylish tassel and lace ornament; and the Shopper, a handcrafted crochet bag with a bold geometric design and sturdy handles, ideal for a day of exploring.
Project: Small Pieces, Big Picture: Functional Maltese Filigree Puzzle as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
Artisans: Kevin Attard, Josephine Cachia, Nathan Camilleri, Daphne Xuereb, and Silvia Galova
The art, and craft, of filigree has been passed down from generation to generation for many years. Where it was once seen and respected as an intricate decorative object or item of jewelry, the demand for this product has drastically decreased within the last few decades, reducing the craft to a business dependent on the appreciation of tourists.
The aim of this project – proposed by Kevin Attard, Josephine Cachia, Nathan Camilleri, Daphne Xuereb, and Silvia Galova – is to help Maltese filigree shift its position from a dying unpopular craft, to obtaining international recognition through the transformation of filigree objects, namely the puzzle pieces, to digital works of art.
To make a functional jigsaw puzzle in filigree is something very challenging and it is something that has never been done. An NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a blockchain-based tokenization of a collectible item or an art piece. This has transformed the physical filigree, 100-piece puzzle into a collection of NFTs which has made it a collectible item at both a physical and a digital level.
This innovative project has thus merged years of tradition and artisanal skills, with the products created by the very recent digital revolution. It repackages the traditional way we have been looking at filigree and has taken this prime example of Maltese crafts in a direction that has not yet been locally explored, thereby allowing for its re-birth in the digital world and enabling people from all around the world to appreciate it and obtain parts of it.