Festival of Lace

 

Festival of Lace at Gallery 76 in Concord West NSW was held by the Embroiderer’s Guild of NSW from Jan 30 - March 4 2021. The exhibition honoured the history of lace making and its evolution through time to present day contemporary works.  Workshops and a 2 day symposium titled Lace Looking Forward- Lace Looking Back highlighted the evolution of lace over the years and its prospect for the future.  If you have a spare 15 minutes click here to enjoy a walk though of the exhibit by the gallery coordinator and curator of the exhibit April Spiers.  And below, enjoy a couple of images featuring antique laces and contemporary works of Maggie Hensel-Brown and Nell (Elyn Bray).

 

Thanks to the support of City of Canada Bay, the Festival was able to support a public art component coordinated by Lindy de WIjn together with fellow lace maker Vicki Taylor.

 

There were three components to the public art element.  The first were stencils designed by Vicki.

 

The second was titled Circles of Friendship and Exploration.  The lace community is like a circle of friends who encourage each other, share knowledge and experiment.  Some circles were created as a collage of contributions, while others were designed for the provided circles. The overall piece represented the diversity of the lace community and the lace they make.  It captured the beauty and diversity in traditional and contemporary lace techniques and design.

Contributors:   Mardie Akers, Mary Campbell, Pam Cork, Lindy de Wijn, Annemieke English, Julie Foster, Margaret Hedges, Dawn Howell, Diane Lowther,  Isabel Navarro Marote, Elizabeth May,  Megan Robinson, Margaret Small, Rosemary Shepherd,  Vicki Taylor, Friederike Wiebke

 

The final piece titled Some Days Are Diamonds And Some Days Are Circles was a site specific piece created for the facade of Gallery 76.  The 3 level metal armature of the gallery entrance provided the perfect location for lace enabling it to be viewed up close from the 2^nd and 3^rd  floors while being a statement piece at the entry that welcomed all to the Festival of Lace Exhibition.  

 

A series of 25 panels were designed for the space, varying from 60cm to 2 metres in length. Each design was sent, with accompanying threads and working notes, to one of 15 lacemakers who contributed to making the lace for the artwork.

 

The title of the work reflects the journey taken to complete this large-scale lace installation during a pandemic.  Each contribution was completed at the home of the lace maker and the full impact of their individual banner was only truly seen once installed.   The project has been a journey in design, creation, modification, and adaption.  Many thanks go to the lace makers who contributed and to the Embroiderer’s Guild of NSW and City of Canada Bay for embracing an idea and nurturing its creation.  

 

Contributors Margaret Abbey, Diane Bishop, Mary Campbell, Pam Cork, Lindy de Wijn, Annemieke English, Margaret Hedges, Dawn Howell,  Hillary MacKay, Elizabeth May,   Leonie Mc Neill, Megan Robinson. Isabel Navarro Marote, Vicki Taylor, Patsy Thorpe

 

For more information on the public art aspect of Festival of Lace click here

From My Wondow

In 2020 Banyule Arts and Culture coordinated ‘From My Window’, where six local shopping strips were activated with art installations in over 30 shopfronts of local businesses across Banyule.  The timing was perfect as the installations occurred just after Melbourne came out of Lockdown and were emerging from their homes to reconnect in the community.  It was a great opportunity to support artists and local business affected by the impact of the Covd-19 pandemic.

I was one of the artists selected for this opportunity. I love creating site specific installations that respond to people, place and time. I loved the idea of art being used as a medium to reconnect and engage once we were able to get out and about in our communities again. 

 

The first piece I created was for Watsonia Optical.  Using threads that I had in my collection I set about designing profiles of faces that would sit within custom made wire armatures in the shape of a face.  It was a great opportunity to experiment with design and play with various grounds and textures.  I loved the freedom of being able to play with stitches and tweak the design as I was working it.

 

 

I wear glasses and find they help express my personality.  We are all individuals within our community.  I hope this piece brings warmth and cheer to the individuals who pass by.  I hope they also wonder – what is bobbin lace?.... and then look it up and realise it is more than just doilies.

 

 

 

The second artwork was made for Kids 1^st Op Shop in Rosanna.  For this piece I set myself the challenge of using items purchased from the Op Shop and transforming them into a piece that showcases the art of lace making.  This piece shows what is possible when imagination and creativity mix with pre-loved objects.  The original objects, 5 t-shirts - each filled with its own memory, are transformed into new possibilities.

 Lace is an old craft filled with tradition.  This tradition can also be practiced in new imaginative ways, especially when using alternative materials.  I hope this piece sparks curiosity and imagination and shows that art is accessible and possible in many forms.

 

 

The event is held from Nov 16 – Dec 14 2020.  For more information and the artists and the windows go to -

 www.banyule.vic.gov.au/frommywindow

 

Many thanks to -

Banyule City Council

Watsonia Optical

Kids 1st Op Shop Rosanna

Brendan Hackett - metal-smith support 

Eli Dance Ali Photography - who captured all the images of works in the shopfronts

TesseLace

I am always inspired by contemporary patterns in bobbin lace.  Veronika Irvine is a design guru in this respect.  Having a Master of Applied Mathematics and a Ph.D in Computer Science and currently completing her post-doctorate, she uses her science and math brains when designing algorithmic lace patterns, bringing lace design into the 21st century.

On her site https://tesselace.com/ Veronica explains that -

For over 500 years, the art of bobbin lace has been developing and evolving. During this time, lacemakers have relied on extensive hands-on experience combined with trial and error to discover new lace tessellations. This can be a slow, time consuming process. In the modern age, we have the benefit of computers and mathematical discoveries. Computers are extremely good at performing tedious, repetitive tasks with great precision – they just need to be given explicit instructions.  Based on this idea, I have developed a mathematical model for bobbin lace and have been using this model to teach the computer to identify lace tessellation patterns.

Veronica has some great links if you are wanting to explore ways she has developed lace tessellations and bent or even broken the traditions of lace making.

Just go to the link below for over 200 downloadable patterns suitable for a free editing tool called InkScape

https://tesselace.com/tools/inkscape-extension/

Veronica is so generous to share her learning and also those of software designer Jo Pol who designed a free source program Ground Forge.  The math side of things may go over my head but the beauty and complexity of these patterns does not and are a joy to explore.  

There is a great tutorial site for Ground Forge  where you can learn and play to your hearts content.  It  opens up a world of opportunities for developing new grounds and studying the form of existing grounds.  This may result in a future post I feel.

 

In the meantime, thanks Veronica and Jo for your incredible talents in this area of lace.

 Images care of Veronica's site https://tesselace.com/gallery/

Connection 2

Connection 2 is a site specific installation made for Cultural Threads 2019.  Cultural Threads is an exciting month-long celebration of textile art presented by the City of Greater Dandenong over August 2019. From knitting to crocheting, dyeing to weaving, needlepoint to urban fashion – and everything in between - people from all ages and backgrounds were invited to explore and discover textile art, learn new crafts, trade skills, create works with textile artists and share stories.

Connection 2 is the second incarnation of a site-specific rope lace installation by Lindy de Wijn.  The first being Connection, made for Bundoora Homestead in 2018 for their event Craft Lab +.   

Connection 2 responds to the Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Garden Site and used the architectural feature of the balcony of Laurel Lodge as the inspiration for the design.

 

 Artist Statement

Lace-making techniques have been used on a large scale with rope to create this site-specific installation.  The pattern of the work is inspired by the architectural features of Laurel Lodge, particularly the geometric patterns of the balcony.  Entwined in the Morten Bay Fig at the entrance to the property,  Connection 2 invites viewers to consider the relationship between architecture, history and community today.

The lace was made using traditional bobbin lace techniques on a large scale where pins are replaced with nails, a pillow with a wooden board and thread and bobbins with rope coils.  Over 900 metres of rope were used in the project.  The lace forms an open web like structure within the tree for the public to discover as pert of the festival.  

This project was made possible thanks to City of Greater Dandenong,