Spring
2007
For years we have been contacted by small craftsmen looking for dyed fibres.
They intended to use them for their creations, but our company, and, most
of all, our industrial mentality, did not allow us to meet their needs. Have
we really become lazy artisans, unable to change our skins and innovate over
time? Then one day we decided to try it seriously, to take the risk, and we
contacted Eva Basile, our famous Italian felt maker who, as a contemporary
Virgyl, guided us to the discovery of the wonderful Fiber Art world.
We started with merino wool 18.5 micron Oeko-Tex certified. First, we had
only a 45 colours card (some of them were a little bit out of the traditional
canon, but after all... aren´t we 50 years tradition dyers? if we don´t satisfy
our whims with colours who else will?). Then, following specific requests
from several customers and after some research, the colours grew up to 90
within a few months. Maori wool was added in the following two years: it is
a mix of New Zeland wools perfect for handbags and carpets, then cashmere
and alpaca, and now we have tussah silk since a few months. And – of course
– always in new colours. WE ARE MAD FOR COLOURS! We added so many accessories
to fibres: handcrafted soaps which are produced in Tuscany following ancients
Florentine traditions, the natural extracts for dyeing and many other products
growing up every week.
And we are not going to stop here, for sure, as DHG is a reality in progress
– keen to be contaminated. We wander curiously through the world, getting
to know places, techniques and people, noble artists and skilled artisans,
but also beginners. The new felt makers make us feel like proposing ever-new
things, facing new projects, new collaborations and new products. Thus, some
may say that our crowning glory is the colour, and that our results are undeniable
– we answer right back: the real ace in the hole is passion: passion for our
job, for textiles, for the traditions of our town, Prato, that is the expression
of textile creativity since 1200. And moreover, we believe in future. Therefore
- despite bad times and short-sighted people who think that textile is not
for us* anymore - our project still goes on, espousing craftwork and industry,
innovation and tradition. We are felt producer company.
*for industralized countries!
