NODI Accessories: Giulia's Colourful Weaves in Cattolica

Some craft projects begin with a declared vocation. Others begin with a practical problem: I need something, I cannot find it, I will make it myself. NODI Accessories belongs to the second family, and that is precisely why it is worth telling. In Cattolica, on Italy's Adriatic coast near Rimini, Giulia weaves colourful cords into accessories that did not exist before her.

How NODI Accessories started

The origin is disarmingly simple: a new keychain she needed and could not find. Instead of buying one, Giulia tried making it. That first weave did not stay an isolated episode — it became a method, then a language, and finally a project with a name.

I started weaving colourful cords partly as a hobby and partly out of necessity: I simply needed a new keychain, so I decided to make one myself. And that is how NODI was born.

— Giulia, NODI Accessories

It is a path that recurs constantly in contemporary craft and is rarely told for what it is: not a creative thunderbolt, but a skill built by repeating one gesture until it becomes precise. Knots, in that sense, are a strict school. They either hold or they do not.

What comes out of a single cord

The discipline is textile and fibre, but the range of NODI lies entirely in variation: change the weave, change the object. The same pair of hands produces very different things.

• Keychains, where everything began and still the most recognisable piece.
• Crossbody phone holders, where the weave has to carry real weight.
• Colourful charms, small, to hang or combine with one another.
• Custom pieces, with colour and length chosen together with the person who will wear them.

Personalisation here is not a marketing flourish: with a cord you get it at no extra cost and with no moulds. It is exactly the structural advantage handmade work holds over mass production — and the one that disappears whenever a maker tries to imitate industry instead of doing the opposite.

Why weaving is a forgiving place to start

If you have never set foot in a workshop, fibre is one of the kindest crafts to begin with. No kiln, no flame, no piece cracking in the firing. It asks for time and attention, and a mistake can simply be undone and redone: it is the most forgiving technique, and therefore the fastest teacher.

It is also one of the few where you leave with a finished, usable object the same day — not a piece to collect three weeks later. If the world of weaving intrigues you, we covered it more broadly in our guide to macramé and fibre workshops.

I will guide you into the colourful world of weaving, where together we will create something truly unique and completely personalised.

— Giulia, NODI Accessories

Cattolica, and a craft scene that keeps quiet

Cattolica is the last town on the Riviera Romagnola before the Marche region, and like the whole coast it is described almost exclusively through its beach. Yet in the months when the seafront empties, a network of people who actually make things remains — one that passing tourism never meets. NODI is one of them. For practical information the institutional reference is the Municipality of Cattolica; for the rest, we mapped the creative side of the Riviera in what to do in Cattolica beyond the sea and in our guide to craft workshops around Rimini and Romagna.

Where to find Giulia

Giulia has just opened her profile on Handsome: it holds her story, photos of her pieces and — as soon as they go live — the dates of her workshops. If you want to know when the first date appears, you can follow her straight from her profile.

On Handsome you join as an Apprentice — someone who makes things by hand but does not yet have a VAT number — and become a Maker as the activity grows. That is the path Giulia is on right now. If you make something with your hands and are wondering whether it is worth trying, the whole thing is explained on the page for people who create.