Vienna straw can be made from its bark, while the noblest part of the cane is the wicker. Extraordinarily versatile, it splinters with difficulty, which is why it is chosen for the manufacture of so many objects: from furniture to baskets, from walking sticks to those used in some martial arts.

Incalmi AND rattan
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Weaving branches and plants is not only one of the oldest and most widespread artisan craft in the world; it was one of the flagships of the Veneto region from the late 19th century to the 1990s. In Barbisano, now a hamlet of Pieve di Soligo, in the province of Treviso, the Scuola dei Panierai, one of the area's leading businesses, had been based since 1886. Founded by lawyer and landowner Pietro Stefanelli from Venice, it had both economic and philanthropic purposes. The idea came to Stefanelli after visiting a panierai school near Gorizia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Veneto region, and the province of Treviso in particular, were going through a severe economic crisis at the time, exacerbated that year by a failed harvest. With great foresight, Stefanelli sent some peasants to learn the trade in Gorizia, in a sort of Erasmus ante litteram, offering a more than decent alternative to emigration for the many unemployed peasants. The Scuola dei Panierai became an example of thriving industry in a depressed area, turning Barbisano into a center of excellence for at least a century.Our intent, too, is twofold: on the one hand to expand our research on the materials of the Italian tradition, on the other hand, to support a craft knowledge that is in danger of being lost. Due to the short-sighted transfer of production to Asian countries and the introduction of polirattan, a plastic material that has begun to replace the natural one, only one craft workshop survives in Barbisano today.

Our approach to rattan processing
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According to our philosophy, when designing rattan objects we have tried to hybridize materials and processing. In addition, we have initiated experiments on coloring the material with natural resins.

Rattan made in Incalmi: the example of the Rullo lamp and the new BombÉ tray

Rullo is an LED wall sconce composed of a coated brass stem and a colored glass disc. In one of its four versions, the stem is covered in hand-woven natural rattan and copper. This is a simple weave, traditionally done using bombé rattan, or simply debarked rattan. To enhance the lighting effects created by the stained glass, in the Rullo lamp we replaced one of the rattan strands with a copper wire. In doing so, we expanded the boundaries of traditional weaving, opening it up to the world of metal.

Bombé is a round enameled copper tray with an optical design that recalls the waves and colors of the lagoon, set in a frame of manila, the pith of rattan. The handles are embellished with two bombé rattan weaves, in red Incalmi.
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