Land, Design, Stories. The World of Mariantonia Urru

As a young girl, Mariantonia Urru learned to weave from her mother. At that time, textiles were almost exclusively woven by hand for personal use, and Mariantonia worked for the next few years on completing the linens she would use in the future for her trousseau. Eventually, she transformed her skill into a business, purchasing a loom and working from the small mountain town where she was born and raised. Today Mariantonia Urru is a full-fledged business that works with international architects, luxury hotels, and prestigious boutiques throughout Europe, the United States, and Australia. However, its heart remains local. The company is still based in Samugheo and is still completely family-run. The entire production process is concentrated locally, from the initial technical planning to the purchase of wool from the town’s shepherds, to the hand-refinishing of each piece. The company has invested heavily in high-end production capabilities with a large range of looms (from older, wooden framed manual looms to top of the line jacquard looms) and accompanying each new employee during a two year training period. They pair their cross-generational knowledge of the craft of weaving with a desire to find new applications for their textiles, for example producing cloth-covered, architectural acoustic panels for interiors. “The experience of the last decade has taught us that we can remain strongly competitive, even with high-level contracts, without losing the artisanal excellence for which we are known,” explains Giuseppe Demelas, one of Mariantonia’s four sons and the company’s Commercial Manager. “It is essential to us to focus on the actual craft of weaving. This is why we created LUNA, () our summer workshop that teaches traditional Sardinian techniques in Samugheo, which is open both to professionals and weaving enthusiasts.” This flexibility - the capacity to produce large amounts of high-quality fabrics, as well as the willingness to create singular design pieces for specific projects - has helped to shape the trajectory of the business. “It’s important to find the right balance between the creative stage and the weaving process,” says Demelas. “Our new line, M/U, which consists of all of our hand-woven carpets, tapestries, and pillows, begins with the creativity of the architects and designers that we collaborate with. That artistic project then needs to be translated into a textile, though, which is a considered process of figuring out the weight and construction of each yarn, the combination of various materials and colors, and the application of different techniques within the same piece.”