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During my visit to meet everyone involved in the lace making system, I traveled to the very southern tip of India. There are two Convents maintaining lace-making units, although the number of girls working has dwindled over the past couple of years. Originally, the Nuns from these Belgian run Convents brought the skill with them in the early 1800’s. As demand diminished and the Nuns returned to Belgium or were transferred to other convents, the skill is taught to fewer and fewer girls. When the girls finish school or marry, they leave the Convent, their lace making skills no longer useful for making money. In order to utilize their lace making skills, they must join one of our Lace Units, where adult women come to work and bring their skills, or are trained to make one of the lace categories.
The most rare lace is Venetian Lace. It is made at a Convent where only a handful of girls still produce the labor-intensive items. One medium size ‘doily’ can take one month to produce. In the other Convent, the Point Milan lace is produced. There are more girls working here, this being a more traditional style of bobbin lace making with more demand than the Venetian Lace. Both are very three-dimensional and have a ‘live’ quality about them, are more rigid and give the feeling of moving parts coming together.
After the schoolgirls leave the Convent making either the Venetian or Point Milan lace, they now join another type of “Unit”. These are organized by Aruna Seth and produce primarily the Cluny lace category. We take the now married girls who leave the Convents or train new Ladies to make this specific category, or we produce additional products in Point Milan lace. Cluny lace is the softest, most delicate lace I’ve every seen or touched. It floats and had a quality unmatched by any machine made lace. This is used for almost all products, especially trims, doilies, handkerchiefs, tabletop items and decorative items.
Additionally, they make crochet items in the same Units. Not all local ladies have the clear vision, speed skills, coordination and physical ability to sit all day making tedious lace designs, so crochet and other skills are taught. We turn no one away – if they cannot make the lace, they will work on crochet or embroidery, beading or any part of production the Unit that can offer. The ladies make items with amazing, detailed embroidery, also a skill learned or refined under the direction of Aruna Seth. At present, the Lace Units are scattered, the main Unit having been destroyed by the Tsunami. Ladies work in small rooms in someone’s home, huddled in the heat, quietly concentrating on each motion, moving the hanging bobbins rapidly while trying to conserve energy. One Unit meets on the top floor of our Manager, Mohan’s house. These two small rooms and two Convent rooms are now the headquarters of all the hand made bobbin lace made in the World…
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If you would like more information regarding the process, history or our efforts to preserve this fine art form from extinction, please contact Victoria at D’Angelo Home Collections, Inc., info@dangelohome.com, or call: 877-745-5278 |
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