He’s the most important part of a process of wool recycling that takes place in Prato, just a few kilometers from Florence. He’s cutting the zippers and trim off old clothes so that they are pure wool, with no ‘extras’ added. He’s helping make a kind of fabric known as Cardato, which is a CO2 neutral regenerated wool that turns the world’s cast-offs into brand new, beautifully coloured raw wool, yarn, and fabrics. From Cadato you can make just about anything, from couches to winter coats to felted poufs. And the whole process is absolutely stunning to see, as it’s super colourful – both these piles of clothes and the vats of dye they meet later in the process.

Right now, the Prato chamber of commerce is promoting a contest for young fashion designers, product designers and videomakers worldwide (aged 18-35). The challenge is to come up with new uses for Cardato. Based on a proposed design for a product, outfit, or communications video, 3 finalists in each category will be flown to Tuscany to spend 5 days in Prato with important producers of fashion and design, to get to know the Cardato process and its output. One person in each category will then win 2500 euros.

The contest is primarily aimed at those starting their career in any of the three fields, for it provides a really good learning opportunity as well as a moment for these young people to make professional contacts and perhaps have their design actually enter production. For videomakers, the cool thing is that you only have to propose an idea of how you might communicate this process, and send a portfolio. Then you get to come and film this amazing content. Do you find industrial processes as cool as I do?

If you feel inspired by this wool, sign up at www.cardato.it/contest – chances of winning are good, and the prize is super! Deadline is October 31 2012.

All photos credit: Marco Badiani

Me with author Jane Fortune at her book launch

Folks! my comprehensive book review of Jane Fortune’s “Invisible Women” is now online and in the paper! Read the article in The Florentine and see below to win your own copy!

Short summary: Invisible Women is an expression of love for the female artists of Florence’s past. Jane Fortune has dug through the archives of the Florentine museums in search of women’s names and their works, which are often in storage and away from the public eye. The book is well written and engaging, and has broad appeal. It makes a great gift for the art-lovers on your holiday list, or really for any woman!

Win a copy of the book!

The prize is one copy of Jane Fortune’s book, generously supplied by The Florentine Press. You must provide arttrav with your snail-mail address upon notification of winning. The book will be shipped in a timely manner by The Florentine Press anywhere worldwide.

From now until Thursday December 17 at midnight European Time, the following actions EACH give you one chance at this random draw (you may do all three).

1) retweet this post (there’s a convenient retweet button at the bottom!). Make sure to include @arttrav in your tweet so I know you tweeted it. You will be contacted by DM if you are the winner.

2) share this post on Facebook (there’s an easy “share” button at the bottom of the post, or just cut and paste the link). Tag @arttrav.com or @Alexandra Korey so that I know you shared it. (If you’re not a fan on facebook, become one! click the heart-shaped fb icon, top right.)

3) Write a comment on this post (preferably after reading the article in The Florentine ) and include your email address in the email field (will not be shown).

I have recently received news of the Happy New Tuscany contest from the Regione Toscana.

You can WIN a super duper luxury week in Tuscany between Christmas and New Years (flight included), or New Years’ Eve in Florence, Siena, Lucca, or Pisa! This contest is open to everyone worldwide except residents of Tuscany (since hey, we already live in this fabulous place!).

Be quick – it’s almost Christmas, and this contest ends December 10th 2009!!

I am happy to announce the winners below. The winning essays will be published every Tuesday starting October 6^th (I had said Sundays in the guidelines, but more people read arttrav on Tuesdays than on any other day, so let’s make them happy).

If you want to be sure to read them all, follow @arttrav on twitter, join the facebook fanpage, or the LinkedIn group.

The articles will be published in this order; links will be added each week.

The extended writing contest deadline is September 27 2009. 

It’s not hard to write a short “post” – don’t be shy! You do not need to be a writer, or even speak English as your first language! Send in your entry now and take a shot at great Italy-related prizes (books, coffee, saffron! and a grand prize worth up to 180$ from Context Travel).

Three reasons to enter the contest:

1) direct personal gain: you have a good shot at winning one of 8 great prizes.

2) gain for your company or exposure for your blog: winners can have a link to their business or blog, and a short bio blurb that mentions these things, included in the publication of their winning submission. Hey, that’s a quality backlink, folks.

3) Pure altruism: what you write will help others enjoy the same location in the future. If you loved it, why not share it?

Click here to enter: http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/mtvituscany

This is not all of the prizes.

I am sitting here looking at the amazing prizes that I’ve collected for the lucky winners of the arttrav writing contest. You might as well send in your entry as soon as you’re done. The contest closes September 13th 2009!

Read rules and the whole shabang on the arttrav contest page.