Manuela Ferretti was born in Bern in 1961, where she completed her schooling. She studied French and

Italian Literature at Neuchâtel, Bern and Pavia.  Manuela then specialized in Human Resources. In the

late 1990s Manuela was inspired to take up calligraphy by a friend and expert, she developed her skills and

passion for calligraphy through many courses in Switzerland, Italy and further afield, in Morocco with

Hassan Massoudy. She joined the Italian Calligraphy Association in 2006. Manuela is currently studying with Andreas Schenk, Marco Campedelli and Monica Dengo. As part of the international “Books by Hand”

course in 2008, her work “up-side-down” was selected for special merit, along with others, by the National

Library in Arezzo. In that same year, Manuela contributed to a collection of texts celebrating

International Women’s day. The summer of 2009 saw Manuela in Venice with Monica Dengo for the

international workshop “The art of freehand”. Alongside expressive calligraphy, Manuela Ferretti also studies

the arts of folding and binding. She has produced works of origami, loose-leaved binding and miniature

art books.  Manuela has recently exhibited with the ‘Calligrafia in Ticino’ group: in 2009 in the old Lido in Stabio, in 2010 at the Museum of Fishing in Caslano and in 2012 at the Canton library in Lugano, at the Sottocentrale Gemmo in 2015 and at Palo Alto with “la dimensione della parola” in 2016. In 2014 she had her first personal exhibition “Nev e Nus” (about snow and walnuts) in Il Vecchio Torchio di Sonvico. She exhibited at MelideCreativa in 2015.