What it is
Bizzilla is bobbin lace, worked by hand on a cylindrical cushion with dozens of small wooden bobbins called ċombini. The lacemaker throws and crosses them in sequence, and the pattern is pinned out on the cushion underneath as the work advances.
It is slow. A sizeable piece is weeks of work, which is the first thing to understand about the price.
How it got here
Lace was made in the Maltese islands from at least the sixteenth century, but the craft as it exists now was deliberately revived in the nineteenth century, with the technique and patterns brought in from Genoa. It took hold most strongly in Gozo, and Sannat became the centre of it.
The motif you will see most is the eight-pointed Maltese cross worked into the ground of the piece.
Telling the real thing
Handmade bizzilla has small irregularities: the ground will not be perfectly even, and the thread will show tension differences where the work was picked up and put down. Machine lace is flawless and flat, and it is usually cheaper by a large multiple rather than a small one.
If a piece is being sold as handmade and the price looks reasonable for the size, it is almost certainly not.
Where to find it
The Ta’ Dbieġi crafts village in Għarb has lacemakers working on site, which is the easiest place to watch it being done. Sannat retains the tradition most strongly. Village markets and the Victoria market have stalls, but the quality and the provenance vary.
Ask whether a piece was made on the island, and by whom. The answer is usually given gladly and tells you most of what you need.
Elsewhere on the island
- Practical Getting to Gozo, and getting around once you are there The car ferry, the fast ferry from Valletta, the buses that all go through Victoria, and whether you actually need a car. Including the fare quirk that catches everyone once.
- Countryside The Gozo countryside: terraces, walls and valley walks A plateau cut by valleys, held up by dry stone walls somebody still maintains. Where to walk, when not to, and what you are actually looking at.
- History & heritage Gozo’s history, from Ġgantija to the Ċittadella Temples older than the pyramids, a citadel whose population was carried off in a single raid, a windmill from 1725 and a lighthouse on the highest hill. What is actually worth your time.