We first met Tonino Guerra in the spring of 2001, when Stamperia Pascucci was organising the first great exhibition of beach shades in Cervia. In addition to traditional shades, we needed some short stories for the display. Tonino Guerra generously gave us eight aphorisms which he wrote expressly for our Bottega.

That first encounter was followed by many others and turned into a precious friendship, which gave rise to a totally new way of making printed textiles: thanks to Tonino’s imagination and suggestions, our traditional (and still perpetuated) approach was revamped, and the effects of this renovation are visible even today.

“Gli arazzi luminosi di Pennabilli” (Bright tapestries from Pennabilli) was the first major project we carried out together in the town of Bertinoro: it included twelve large printed and hand-painted textiles, which represented the starting point of a research and renewal process that allowed us better explore the creative possibilities offered by hand printing.

Tonino’s masterly sketches had poems in them, and the objects that we manufactured triggered emotions in those of us who made them in the first place. New colours, fantastic lines, but above all Tonino’s beloved butterflies, the undisputed symbol of a sensitivity that went through hardship but managed to survive thanks to the magic of fantasy: all of this brought new life into our Bottega as well as into anyone who chooses to take home a bit of poetry and of Romagna tradition by buying a printed textile bearing his designs.

In 2011, one year before his death, Tonino wrote: “For ten years, with the help of master craftsman Riccardo Pascucci, I have created sketched presences that talk to me from the wall, and I like it. They have been called Arazzi Luminosi (Bright tapestries), but to me they are just simple, poetic cloths made to keep us company, warm up our thoughts, tell us tales” (from “La Valle del Kamasutra” (The Kamasutra valley) by Salvatore Giannella).