Are We Made of Lace?

Lace Wall Art – 6 panels
Materials: Enamelled copper on acrylic background, metal frames
Handmade bobbin lace techniques: Panel I – braids and tallies, Panel II – tape lace, Panel III – tape lace with tallies, Panel IV – ground with gimp, Panel V – chantilly lace, Panel VI – tape with half stitch.
76cm x 114cm overall, 38cm x 38cm each panel

This piece was created for the International Lace Award Competition organized by Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia. It was selected as a finalist and was exhibited in the Powerhouse Museum “Love Lace” exhibition in 2012 – 2013.

Artist’s Statement

When I make lace, I am totally at peace and in sync with the inner rhythm. When I study lace, I feel like I am conversing with the lacemakers of the past. When I design lace, patterns are coming as I need them. I am in a special state of mind. I generally do not experience this type of deep connection in any other activity, and it makes me wonder what is so unique in lace. In our modern time, there is no rational explanation for it, and I would consider it abnormal – if I had not met other lacemakers. Beginners or advanced experts, they all share the primal attraction to the intricate lace structure or to the process of making it. As if there was something deeper meaning in it.

When I came across scanning electron microscope images, it felt like finding the missing piece of the puzzle. The images of cells structures look exactly like lace. Plants, sea plankton, humans… all made from a primordial lace that cannot be seen with unaided eye, but it pervades everything.

I found the answer to my question: We live in awesome lace world!