Sea Silk Seamstress

Chiaro Vigo

Wow Wow Wow

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170906-the-last-surviving-sea-silk-seamstress?ocid=ww.social.link.reddit

"On several occasions after Vigo extracted a thick tuft of fibres, she ordered me to close my eyes and extend my hand. Each time I felt nothing. After about 10 seconds, I’d open my eyes to see Vigo rolling a weightless cloud of sea silk back and forth on my palm.

Next, she twists the silk manually around a small wooden spindle, usually singing in Sardo – the closest living form of Latin – during the process. When the fibres form a long thread, she grabs a jar of cloudy yellowish liquid from the shelf.

“'Now, we’ll enter a magical realm,' she said, dropping the thin thread into a secret concoction of lemon, spices and 15 different types of algae. Within seconds, the thread becomes elastic and she excitedly ushered me outside to show how it shimmered in the sunlight. Vigo has an encyclopaedic knowledge of 124 natural dye variations made from fruits, flowers and seashells."

~ Eliot Stein, "The Last Surviving Sea Silk Seamstress"

Beautiful.