Essay

Il-Luzzu

The Luzzu is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of maltese traditional fishing vessels. What's iconic about this fishing vessel is that it has a pointed front and back and is always painted in very bright colours.

Figure 1 : Luzzu Colour

They are brightly painted in yellow, red, green and blue. Its most eye catching feature is ironically the two eyes on both sides of the booth which is the only part that distincts its front from back.

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This eyes go back to the Egyptian times which was also practiced by greeks and is said to be one of the few modern survival of ancient Phoenician customs. It is said that they are a reference to the Eye of Horus or Osiris. 

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It has very similar characteristics to the Kajjik but instead it has a square transom. 

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The luzzu is not just a nice boat to look at it is also a very practical one too. Its design did not survive all these years for nothing this is because it tends to be very sturdy and stable boat for both good and bad weather. 

As said it was originally made to go fishing with it, so much so that originally it had sails on it but nowadays it not practical on that type of boat. Now they are equipped with motors and are a huge tourist attraction because  now it's used for trips around this beautiful island.

Maltese Filigree

This beautiful art is a very rare sight to see compared to before. It has a very thorough process which takes years to master due to the large amount of detail that some of the these filigree pieces have and also because of the large margin of error that a lot of things can go wrong.

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The long process obviously first starts from melting and mixing the pure gold or the silver grains with another metal in very a high temperature. The most common metals used to be added with the mixture are usually copper or zinc. 

This mixture determines what the color outcome and the price due to the amount of gold or silver used in the final piece of jewellery. The second step is to pour the molten silver or gold alloy into the mould to form what is called an ingot.

Figure 2: Molten Silver Mix 

After the ingot is made it is stretched through a mill to produce wires of different thicknesses. The first half of this hard process is now done and the forming of the design is the most elaborate part of the whole process and is performed by highly trained artisans.

Using only their fingers and a pair of tweezers these artisans fill the spaces of the framework to produce to give look of the open work in the filigree jewellery. And to connect everything a heated

filament from the soldering iron is all that is needed.

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The final piece of jewellery is then dipped in hot solution of sulphuric acid to remove the impurities and then polished in a rumbling machine and then is finally electroplated. They are very big amongst tourists as souvenirs or gifts due to their sentimental purposes and the fact that the craftsmanship is very appreciated.

Il-Bizzilla

Bizzilla was first introduced to Malta by the Arabs who broth cotton into Malta from around 870 A.D and also broth their expertise in dyeing the cotton and in weaving. It is a well known 

old tradition in the maltese islands. But it first started in Egypt where it then flourished. 

Figure 3: Bizzilla Hand Work

This later became huge and cotton became a major rural industry from medieval times up to the early 19th century.Gozitans were most famous for this hand craft. At that time Gozitan cotton was very praised in mainland Europe which was about the time of the Knights.

Figure 4: Bizzilla 

It was noticed by the people that the fabric that they were making had increased drastically in popularity and in value and so they were encouraged alote by the Church. So life in Gozo and a big part of malta was relatively harsh since the majority of the people's income was coming from doing this.

Figure 5: Maltese women making Bizzilla

A lot of these hand crafted works were burned or lost but the craft remained rooted in the heart of many Maltese but mostly Gozitans who carried it with them throughout the ages. This cherished craft was carried away even by people that emigrated to other countries so that it never dies.

References: 

Jewelry.novica.com, 2016. STERLING SILVER FILIGREE JEWELRY FOR WOMEN - Sterling Silver Filigree Jewelry for Women at NOVICA. [online] Available at: <http://jewelry.novica.com/filigree/sterling-silver/> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].

Malteselace.eu, 2016. MalteseLace.eu - The portal about Lace in Malta. [online] Available at: <http://www.malteselace.eu/Lace_History/Lace_History.html> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].

Patrick Mavros, 2016. Patrick Mavros - The Lost Wax Process. [online] Available at: <http://www.patrickmavros.com/about/lost-wax/> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].

Visitmalta.com, 2016. Maltese Local Crafts - Attractions | Visit Malta. [online] Available at: <http://www.visitmalta.com/en/local-crafts> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].

YouTube, 2016. How is it Made - Yemenite Filigree Jewelery by Ben Zion David. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvLkIJnMN5Q&hd=1> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].

Photos: 
Figure 1: Flickrhivemind.net, 2016. The World's Best Photos of boat and gozo - Flickr Hive Mind. [online] Available at: <http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/boat,gozo/Interesting> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].
Figure 2: Patrick Mavros, 2016. Patrick Mavros - The Lost Wax Process. [online] Available at: <http://www.patrickmavros.com/about/lost-wax/> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].
Figure 3: Filforn.blogspot.com.mt, 2009. Wünderkammer: Maltese Lace - Bizzilla. [online] Available at: <http://filforn.blogspot.com.mt/2009/10/maltese-lace-bizzilla.html> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].
Figure 4: Anon, 2016. Bizzilla. [online] Available at: <http://katrinaannasarahdrake.tumblr.com/post/120764127640/bizzilla> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].
Figure 5: Pinterest.com, 2016. [online] Available at: <https://www.pinterest.com/pin/407646203741807920/> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].