The talented tea towel

Touching is a perpetual trans-sensory exercise. A haptic approach, instead, senses processes. In a sentient world, there are no objects and subjects of perception; perception inheres in the “creative movement of emergence”, in which “things become things and the world becomes world” (Ingold, 2015).

We can feel the process and the craftsmanship behind an artefact through the touch of our hands—whether we are using a tea towel to dry them indoors or outdoors.

These objects are carriers of endless stories, beginning with their names. In Italy, each region has its own term: Mappina in Sicily and Southern Italy, Burazzo in Veneto and Friuli, Cencio in Tuscany.

Their functions are equally varied: drying and cleaning, wrapping herbs in a damp cloth to keep them fresh, or gathering food for transport. As with Italian food, their uses and names shift not only from city to city, but sometimes even from village to village.

At the beginning of the last century, Vanessa Bell—sister of Virginia Woolf and a key figure in the Omega Workshop—reminded us through her practice that these objects can have an infinite life.

After decades of use, when we think they can no longer serve their original purpose, they can instead be cut into small pieces, braided together and, with the help of a large crochet hook, transformed into rugs. This mindset was part of a holistic philosophy of life, one that also embraced mending one’s own clothes.

In the simple, tactile act of using a towel, we encounter not just a functional object, but a layered history of materials, gestures and resilience.