About me

My name is Clarissa, I am 32 years old. I am the face behind Békla printmaking: I deal with woodcuts, art printing, dyes and plant based inks.

The inspiration for my subjects comes from the world around me: herbs, trees and animals from the Trentino woods. I mainly draw them from life, then transfer them onto wood and linoleum. I engrave the matrix using tiny gouges, then print them onto fabric and paper using a manual press, with inks I make myself from herbs, berries and roots gathered on the slopes of Mount Baldo.

I learned to engrave at secondary school (I attended the A. Vittoria art school in Trento) thanks to the passion and care instilled in me by Giordano Chini, a multifaceted artist who was my printing techniques teacher at the time.After finishing high school, I worked for many years in a field that did not feel right for me, so I decided to quit my job.

I once again had time to study and practise the art of engraving, deepening my knowledge of the plant world and its applications in dyeing and herbal medicine.

In 2017, I decided to move to a small mountain village (78 inhabitants): it was the beginning of this new life.

Thanks to its proximity to the woods, my business expanded considerably.

It was the first place where I had the space for a well-equipped, comfortable workshop dedicated to printing and transforming plants into pigments.

I then moved to Brentonico, a bigger mountain village -always on the scoper of Monte Baldo, and on 24 June 2025, I opened my atelier at the center of the town, in Via Roma 27. This place has become my safe haven; I never thought I would be able to realise such a significant dream.

I specialize in fabrics dye with the plants that I collect in the woods around here; xilography and linocut, and printing on natural fabrics with herbs, root, leaves and so-based inks, that I do by myself.

The paper I use comes from the scraps of large factories.
The fabrics are organic or vintage, and they are completely natural.

In my work I find meditation, slowness, stillness. This is the moment where the mind becomes silent and gives space for hearing.

The Mountain is an infinite source of inspiration, with its herbs and creatures, both in physical and metaphysical space.

With my prints I try to convey this scent: beyond aesthetics, they can act as a present memory of a slow, cyclical and living world, on a human scale that is an integral part of the nature that surrounds it. I hope you can grasp this message in my creations, and decide to bring it into your home.