Wood, cork, copper, silver, textile fibers are the materials from which skilled hands create small wonders: carved wooden furniture, ceramics, woven baskets, jewelry, carpets, tapestries, traditional costumes. Typical of Sant’Antioco is, for example, the processing of byssus, the precious “sea silk“, secreted by the Pinna Nobilis, an endangered mollusk, whose filaments are used in textiles, following an ancient, as well as strict and laborious procedure. On the Island, splendid artifacts can be admired inside the Museum of Byssus, and in the workshop of the last artisan custodian of this art, Chiara Vigo.
Staying in the textile field, mention should also be made of the products from Giba and Villamassargia, inland in Sulcis, where shops offer curtains, cushions, towels, bench covers, carpets, and other fabulous household linens, produced by artisans still using manual horizontal looms and traditional techniques such as pipiones, grape cluster patterns.
The Iglesiente, a land with a strong mining tradition, stands out instead for the high level of cutlery craftsmanship, which produces sought-after pieces even by collectors, called Arresoias (the typical shepherd’s knife), whose blade is forged directly between anvil and hammer, and hardened according to techniques each artisan jealously guards.
