Lenka's Way of LaceAre you looking for free heart patterns for bobbin lace?
Posted on May 17, 2020
Heart design has become very popular among artists lately, and lacemakers are no exception. That’s great to see!
What is a better way to say “Thank you!” or
“I love you” then through a unique lace artwork? Special occasions require special presents, and handmade lace can truly deliver the heartfelt message.
When you dedicate your attention single-mindedly to the task, the positive energy flowing from your heart and mind, through your hands and delicate fingers, is capable of transforming a spool of thread or wire into a very personal artifact. Your spirit will be woven in the lace forever, stored for those who are open to feel it. Even if the person doesn’t know anything about you or handmade bobbin lace, and how long it takes produce a piece of lace (let alone the time needed to master the craft) often they can sense that they are looking at an uncommon work.
That’s why handmade lace artifacts are kept in museums, private collections and family heirlooms.
And that is why the rare lacemaking technique, and the skills that come with it, is now becoming really valuable.
If you have been searching for free heart patters for bobbin lace, on this website you will find a collection of prickings for fibre as well as wire mediums. The patterns were created by Lenka Suchanek of the New School of Lace for three editions lace|heart|art international challenge of handmade bobbin lace in colour. Working instructions and diagrams are included. The patterns can be worked exactly as is shown in the provided samples, or they can be modified and expanded according to your artistic vision.
Links to free downloads:
- Heart 1 (fibre and wire) – pricking + working diagrams
- Heart 2 (fibre and wire) – pricking + working diagrams
- Heart 3 (fibre and wire) – pricking + working instructions
- Heart 3 (fibre) – working instructions
- Heart 3 (wire) – working instructions
(The author would appreciate a credit mention to lenkas.com when you share your lace with recipients or on social media.)
For inspiration on how to work the lace hearts, visit the online exhibitions of hearts from all over the world:
1st lace|heart|art Online Exhibition 2018
2nd lace|heart|art Online Exhibition 2019
3rd lace|heart|art Online Exhibition 2020
Happy ❤️ lacemaking… keep the love and lace alive!
Lenka
Amazing Grace
Posted on May 12, 2020
May 12, 2020
Maybe you were one of tens of millions people who watched Andrea Bocelli’s Music For Hope – Live From Duomo di Milano on Easter Sunday.
It was calming and moving at the same time to listen to Andrea’s beautiful voice singing hymns to Virgin Mary, praying for love and compassion that she embodies in Christian faith.
Besides the singer and the organist playing on the grand organ of the Duomo, the cathedral was empty. Camera moved around freely to reveal magnificent art of the church interior. At one moment, I noticed a familiar image – detail of the gothic tracery in one of the apse windows.
It instantly transported me back to time when I took this very image as inspiration for one panel of my work “Centering”.
Creating the work in 2008 for the 13th International Lace Biennial in Sancepolcro, Italy, I explored given theme of “lace as an architecture of threads” in study of circular elements in architecture, especially those resembling lace patterns. I found the rose window of the Milan Cathedral interesting because its clean, graceful design contains so much flow and movement. From the historical perspective, it is symbolic of enormous creative energy of the sciences and arts in Europe at the onset of the Renaissance.
Continuous Milanese tape braid allowed me to trace the simplified lines of the rosetta. The lace was worked in fine bronze wires to which an encaustic medium was applied later to evoke the colour of white marble.
Ten years later, the piece was one of the works reframed in the Lost Art series. Restored to the plain bronze and mounted in reverse against recessed black background it seems to continue living its own life in motion, propelling the gothic image through evolving times.
When the virtual offering of divinely gifted Andrea Bocelli and his team culminated in Amazing Grace sung on an empty piazza in front of the cathedral, his voice carrying over across empty cities in Italy and around the world, I thought about how everything is connected. 
Imagining all the links in time and space as delicate threads, they created an immense multidimensional lace… timeless, infinite and incredibly beautiful.
Now more than ever I believe that art truly is capable of expressing and transmitting the amazing grace…
Lenka's Way of Lace 