El arte de las MALLERAS - Redes de pesca y MALLAS artísticas tejidas y bordadas A MANO

On the Asturian coast, sheltered by Cabo de Peñas, is Luanco, capital of the Gozón council. The maritime and commercial development during the Late Middle Ages contributed to the fact that the economy of this town was directly related to the sea. From the 13th and 14th centuries, attracted by whaling, people came from all over the Cantabrian coast and from southern Ireland, who ended up settling in this territory. The marine activity in this area required various crafts in its surroundings that supplied both the boats and the fishing tackle. One of these artisan tasks was the manufacture and repair of the nets, which was carried out by the women while the men were working at sea. Based on the technique of weaving fishing nets, but treated in an artistic way, the most important artisan activity of the town of Luanco then arises: meshes. The old drawings and the works carried out by past generations have been and are currently the basis and sample of the mesh craft. Some malleras from Luanco have gathered in the courtyard of the Palacio de La Pola to show us together the details of this meticulous work. To weave a mesh, cotton thread of different thicknesses is needed , depending on the work to be done, threaded on a special needle. It has two hooks, on one side and on the other. A little open up here and on this other side, so that the thread enters here and here, one way and the other. We make the knot, an ordinary knot, as I say. Now we cut what is left over. And now we start the mesh, which starts with a point. The tentemozo is a wooden support that serves to fix the thread, allowing the mallera to have their hands free while weaving the mesh. The needle is inserted through the thread. And all the fingers are released except the little one, which is the one that is pulling, pulling, to make the knot. And now the knot is done. And so on all the time until you have the mesh that you want to make, the length, the width and already reaching the size to make the rug that you want, then you cut it. To maintain the size of the net grid, a cylindrical bar called a “mallero” is used. The beginning or waning is the least pleasant part of the elaboration of the mesh, due to the difficulty that exists when introducing the needle. The key to this work is knowing how to make a special knot, called a mallero, which does not come undone when cutting the ends of the thread. You have to put it like this, cross here, bend your finger here, put it through a thread, hold it well, like this. We have to make this knot that is very little visible so that it does not come undone and very little is noticed from the other knot that we make in the mesh. Mari Luz and Socorro are two veteran malleras from Luanco who still continue with this secular tradition that had its crisis at the end of the forties and throughout the fifties. This instability was motivated when the workers of the workshops were forced to join the social security, which made a final product more expensive that by its own process was already expensive. Well, now the mesh is finished and is ready to be put on the frame. I'm going to review it a bit to see if there is something wrong that can be corrected. Now it goes to the rack. Once the mesh is finished, these artisans already have the base fabric to express their art. In this group of meshes, Maruja is going to carry out the “marking” work, which consists of mounting the mesh on the frame and preparing it for embroidery. The frame is a removable wooden support that can be adapted to different sizes of fabric. In it, the mesh is sewn to its ends and tightened with moving parts called "barrettes" until a smooth framework is formed. Once the mesh is fixed in its width, it must be adapted to the length of the frame, tightening it with some threads. Now I am going to mark the drawing and then embroider it. How is it marked? Well, look, one with the other, with a basting line they are outlined Taking old drawings and cloths as a reference, Maruja transfers the original motifs to the squares of the mesh, outlining them with a thicker thread basting line. Traditionally this work was carried out by skilled and highly skilled workers. In the workshops there was a marker and an embroiderer. Well, one marked and others embroidered. These first stitches to configure the sketch of the drawing are prior to the embroidery task. Well, the embroidery consists, it is a revision that is made, there are several points as well. At the moment I am doing the finishing, there are also openwork, there are passes, then the festoon, at the finish, and then since they already have the marking, the drawing can be done. And then, getting to embroider is already very entertaining, more than doing the mesh, because doing the mesh is all the same and this is all different. The next task after marking is embroidery. With it the final shape is given to the motif through a wide variety of dots and drawings. This is nuanced, what we call "passes". You have to fill the entire point, or two or three, until it is quite filled. In the work of embroidery, skill and a lot of patience are needed to fill in each of the marked squares, which are called points. Well, right now I'm doing, we call it “passes”, which consists of filling in the entire point, not like in the revision that is two and two, twice, and two in one way and two in another. And this is nuanced, we call it and it gives relief to the work. Everything is filled with a pearl thread, which is also different and gives it a bit of relief. This is called draft. First I passed it bordering, as the drawing goes. So now I turn it around and that is when the draft is already forming. We go back down, where we went up and we are doing it. It is very fine. Meshes in Luanco have always been a feminine work. In the past, its clothing filled the waiting hours of the sailors' wives. In this way, they contributed with their work to increase the deficient family economy. Well, I'm going to make the festoon, which is how the work is finished. We already do this and then add a fish tail to make it a little stiff, to also preserve it from dirt, and then it is cut with scissors and that is what gives it the final shape. The festoon consists of a final finish that serves to fix all the squares or points of the mesh, avoiding its mismatch when it is released from the frame. Another day, these women from Luanco have gathered at the pier to continue their work. In the last decades of the 19th century, the great commercial expansion of the Luanco meshes began, which gave work to four centers with an average of about twenty workers and several women who had their small family workshops. At the beginning of the 20th century, it is precisely from this dock that almost all the production from the Luanco workshops left for countries such as Cuba, Mexico or Venezuela. Well, now since the embroidery is finished, you have to glue it with a glue that is called fish glue, which is like a jelly, which you buy at the pharmacy, so that it remains as a preparation so that it remains stiff, so that it gets less dirty that way. . And you have to dry it in the sun. And after it is dry, you have to remove it from the frame and cut the corners with the scissors and the drawing is prepared and ready for whatever you want: for a nightstand, for a dresser. I do this to remove the shine from the tail, so that it remains natural, without shine. Because if it is not removed, it remains shiny. Once the fish glue is applied to the mesh, it must remain in the sun for approximately half an hour, so that it dries stretched on the frame. Now I'm going to remove it from the frame. First we remove the threads that are called, to later cut it out and the drawing remains, the mat remains. We remove the barrettes, which are called barrettes. And now I remove it from the frame. Now I'm cutting it. We say “cut” or “chop”. Removing the excess and it remains with the festoon, this is already safe. We cut it on the wrong side so that you don't see the... that sometimes there is a thread left, so that it doesn't show on the right. This is already the end. Now put it wherever you want: on a table, in a dresser... Luanco's tights enjoyed great national and international prestige, as evidenced by the silver medal obtained at the Gijón Regional Exhibition in 1899 and the gold and silver medals of the Hispano-American Exhibition of Seville in 1929. At present, the recovery of the Luanco mesh craft is conditioned by the need to train new artisans, the introduction of new designs along with the conservation of the traditional ones, and above all, by the search for new commercial channels within and outside Asturian territory. I am Eugenio Monesma, director and producer of the documentary you have just seen. If you liked it, I encourage you to subscribe to the channel by activating the notifications from the bell and so you can enjoy the hundreds of documentaries that I already have on the channel and which I will upload weekly.