2023-11-02 19:52:32
Patience, treasures of patience, that’s what Charlotte Font and Charlotte Romani, professional weavers, specialists in weaving using the Savonnerie technique, have at their fingertips. They also have rigor, which alone allows them to carry out the gestures of this know-how imported from Turkey at the beginning of the 17th century, today mastered by only around thirty craftsmen in France.
The Savonnerie technique consists of making rows of symmetrical knots in wool, forming loops at the front of the weave. This one is then “round” with angled scissors to obtain a particularly dense velvet. The result provides a foamy material “which catches the light in an incomparable way”, they emphasize in one voice. It can then be sculpted “like a bas-relief”.
Rare know-how
Friends since their training years at Mobilier national, the two women share the same high-heddle loom, in Paris, in the 18th arrondissement, where they create exceptional pieces: rugs, wall pieces, but also works of art textile. Charlotte Romani, 26 years old, became involved with the art of threads after studying fashion, Charlotte Font, 30 years old, after studying Russian and traveling which introduced her to “the beauty of Central Asian carpets and textiles”.
Both are now flourishing in the long term of this weaving, where the production of one square meter requires nearly six hundred hours of work. “This temporality puts us in a somewhat meditative statesmiles Charlotte Font. But we can also listen to music, podcasts or chat while working. »
To distinguish their work, the professional trade union Ateliers d’art de France has chosen to award them its 2023 prize, on the occasion of the International Cultural Heritage Fair which is being held at the Carrousel du Louvre until November 5 , and which The cross is a partner. The price of these exceptional creations – €4,000 for a small textile sculpture, €25,000 for a square meter to order – reserves them for wealthy buyers, but the public can admire Savonnerie pieces at the Louvre, at the châteaux of Versailles and Fontainebleau, and soon in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
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