Carla Pisano explores textile heritage and contemporary design at the Art of Silk Museum

Italian designer Carla Pisano took part in the Accelerator4Crafts Residency Programme at the Art of Silk Museum in Soufli, Greece, from 8 to 21 June 2026.

During her two-week residency, Carla explored traditional textile motifs from Soufli and the wider Evros region, experimenting with embroidery, painting, drawing and other techniques before translating selected motifs into contemporary designs conceived for silk printing.

Her research connected local textile heritage with contemporary visual language, moving between handcraft, experimentation and digital processes.

A residency between past and present

Carla is an Italian designer based in Sardinia whose practice translates traditional patterns and intangible heritage into contemporary visual language through research, making and participatory processes.

Her work approaches textiles as a narrative system capable of connecting memory and the present, an idea that became the guiding thread of her research during the residency.

During her stay at the Art of Silk Museum, Carla explored the impact that silk production has had on Soufli and on the lives of the people who inhabit the area.

Through the museum and other places she visited during the residency, she learned more about the history of the city, its changes over time and the relationship between silk production, local culture and territory.

Exploring local textile traditions

Carla’s research began with local textile motifs from Soufli and neighbouring centres in the Evros region.

Her stay also coincided with the annual Silk Festival, giving her the opportunity to participate in weaving and embroidery workshops led by craftspeople from different parts of Greece.

These encounters allowed her to gain a broader understanding of textile craft while meeting people who continue to practise these traditions, both professionally and as amateurs. They also offered valuable insights into the current state of local craftsmanship, its future prospects and the transmission of this knowledge.

From traditional motifs to experimentation

Carla’s creative process began with a question: what happens when traditional motifs move beyond the loom?

She selected a single motif taken from the apron of Soufli’s traditional costume and used it as the starting point for a sample book.

Working with this motif, she experimented with painting, drawing and embroidery on different materials, as well as cyanotype and eco-print, techniques she had the opportunity to learn at Filakto, the centre where the museum’s workshops take place.

From this phase of experimentation, embroidery emerged as the technique she chose to explore further.

From hand embroidery to digital design

Carla then selected a group of traditional textile motifs using materials collected during her stay together with the museum’s digital repository.

She hand-embroidered the motifs on both fabric and paper before scanning and digitally reworking them.

This passage from analogue to digital became a central element of her research during the residency, creating a dialogue between traditional making techniques and contemporary design processes.

Connecting heritage with contemporary production

The final outcome of the residency was a series of designs conceived for silk printing, created from the motifs Carla had embroidered and subsequently digitised.

The process also created a dialogue with Tsiakiris, the textile company of the family that owns the museum, specialised in silk production and printing.

Through this work, Carla explored how traditional motifs that characterise the territory could be brought into contemporary textile production while maintaining a connection with their cultural origins.

Craft heritage through a contemporary lens

Carla’s residency at the Art of Silk Museum brought together research, traditional textile knowledge, hand embroidery and digital experimentation.

Moving between local heritage and contemporary design, her work explored how textile motifs can move across materials, techniques and contexts while continuing to carry the memory of the places from which they originate.

The final designs reflect the same perspective that characterised her experience in Soufli: a position between past and present, exploring how traditional textile heritage can continue to evolve through contemporary practice.