Women: traditions and innovation

From the first societies of prehistory through Romans and Greeks, even during the obscurantism of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, where women were placed in a submission and obedience background, up to modern times, the presence of the female hands in the daily life has been fundamental for societies evolution.

Women are the ones who often possess the knowledge of traditions and the patience to work with materials and methods that maybe are not easy to deal with. They are the main promoters and constructors of the artisanal rituals of the communities and represent the collective memory of the societies. They are the ones who preserve and transmit to the young generations their cultural heritage and the identity of a particular social group.

Thin and young or older and tired, handcrafted women’s hands are equally skilled with leather needles, miniature brushes, stills, hammers, threads but also with keyboards and high tech consoles: they are the 3.0 artisan women, the “Avant-garde feminine craftsmanship”.

Today, when we are immersed in the digital era, where if you don’t have presence in the world wide web you don’t exist, we find more women engaged in artisanal work, women who are mothers, wives, daughters, housewives but innovative artisans too, they represent the most beautiful and reassuring side of globalization because these women with their art represent a feminine universe that knew how react to a reality, the presence of the digital market, and at the same time, gave shape to their dream.

Being able to continue to work with their hands, doing what they’ve learned from their ancestors with the same methods and materials, keeping the tradition alive but, at the same time, being so perceptive to understand the need of using the internet as a tool to spread their art, is something worth admiring.

For this reason, Snowdrop dedicates this month to them, to all those special women who knew how to merge traditions and innovation.