One Ocean – Many Waves

September 25, 2026

Every summer I like to design a small project that that doesn’t need many pairs and fits comfortably on my travel pillow, so I can carry it around and work outdoors. This year I played with waves, and it was a lot of fun. Just one simple outline, four spools of wire, ten pairs of bobbins and a few pins and I was set for some lovely summer days on the beach.

I started by working the first wave pattern in a plain half stitch, which filled the shape with flowing lines in aqua, teal, pale aqua and blue. The colours blended beautifully and gave the simple pattern more interest and depth. In the following waves I changed the work slightly – a different foot side, two workers instead of one, cloth stitch instead of half – and so on, without a real plan, just playing with the bobbins and colours, and watching the lace to take shape. It felt as effortless as witnessing the gentle ocean waves that were coming and going one by one in a steady rhythm,  not two being exactly the same.
Flowing water, flowing bobbins, forgetting the rest of the world, lost in time…

The pattern slowly evolved towards a basket weave that is often found in Milanese tape lace. It is was not easy to tension because wire offers more resistance to the weave than fibre. But the forgiving wave design alowed the threads to flow unevenly, in accord with their nature.
Seeing the completed waves side by side, I relished the wonder of bobbin lace, the technique of unlimited creative potential even in its simplest form. 

Suddenly, a picture of a beautifull seashell resurfaced from the depths of my memory. It was from the book “Special Effects in Bobbin Lace” by Sandi Woods. Published in 2003, Sandi’s highly original work introduced colour shading to fibre lace, which together with application of traditional Milanese tape lace pattern to a modern form, created wonderful effects and thus greatly contributed to the evolution of bobbin lace art. I admired the book and would loved to explore Sandi’s techniques, but colours of wire were limited then. More than twenty years later, enabled by four shades of blue-green colour, the pattern asserted itself, as if it was waiting just for this moment. 

I couldn’t help thinking that our beloved craft, with its five hundred years long history, is like a big ocean that manifests in waves. Each unique ripple, shaped by contemporaneous circumstances, rises from the body of water and after it runs its course, returns back to the ocean. That’s how the knowledge is preserved, that’s what connects the past and the future… what a liberating idea! 

For a long time I believed that contemporary lacemakers have a possibility, and a duty, to protect the craft and pass it on to the next generation. As it has become more difficult over time to preserve lacemaking from decline, our efforts seemed to be heading for failure. But if the lace is an ocean, and each lacemaker is a wave, all we need to do is to surrender and humbly offer our life’s work to the boundless, limitless space. The energy preserved within the original source will be there to inspire and sustain any creative mind open and willing to carry on as a new wave into the future…

Back home at my work bench, the wire ends were finished off and the water received quartz beads to curl around in an embrace with the earth element. I envisioned the waves as bookmarks, a bit unusual, but fun for summer vacation reading.

Full of enthusiasm, I offered the bookmarks to a local museum gift shop which sits right on the beach, to share the waves and support the neighbourhood organization. They did not accept them, as the waves didn’t fit their needs. This contact with the real world made me realize how detached I am – still making lace by hand, reading physical books and contemplating the ocean of art – from the society that is rushing towards unexplored cyber space horizons. I am at peace with it, everything changes and everybody is free to choose their paths.

And I am content surfing on my lace wave to wherever it takes me until it merges with the ocean 🙂

Cheers to summer that was! And happy lacemaking to all ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~