I have had several Romanian lacemakers remark negatively on my heavy, colorful lace -- "Lace should be white or maybe beige," and "You use too heavy a cotton thread for your lace and it feels so bulky." "It's not traditional lace." I was beginning to question my taste level and my delight in making in the heavier, more structured lace. "Maybe I am lazy and want the lacemaking to go faster. Maybe I was using my eyesight as an excuse to justify working with the heavier thread. Maybe my lace doesn't look that good. Perhaps I should give it up," I thought.
So I moved to embroidery for the past month. I am teaching my cousin's daughter (age 8) to embroider, and we're making tea towels together. Along with that, I dug out some stamped pillowcases I'd bought a few years back to make for gifts but hadn't gotten around to finishing. I've finished all those -- again using bright colors, but following the traditional thread size. They are fine, I enjoyed making them, but embroidery isn't my joy. A few days ago I picked up my huge lace project and started working on it again, and I was SO HAPPY to be doing it. I love working up the lace. So I decided to continue with that even if it isn't the best.
But then yesterday, I watched a PBS program called "The Mind of a Chef" featuring local Louisville Edward Lee, a young chef of Korean heritage who mixes Korean and Southern cuisine styles in his cooking. He visited other chefs doing similar cooking, mixing Vietnamese and Cajun styles, for example. And he said that this mixing is a trend in American cooking. He said that the result is not traditional and is often criticized. But, he said (and this is the kicker), "Once you say something is traditional, you say it is dead."
WOW -- Once you confine yourself to traditional techniques and styles you say the craft is dead. I see that the same can be said for lacemaking. I'm NOT Romanian. I have never seen a traditional Romanian piece of lace except on the internet. So, why would I confine myself to the traditional looks of the lace? I am using traditional stitches.............for the most part, because I have an idea for creating some different looks in the creation of the braids that form the structure of the lace...........but that I've mastered the traditional stitches might be the better way to say it. I'm NOT Slovak. I have studied with a traditional Slovak bobbin lace maker who decried my use of heavier thread and the way I chose to incorporate color in my lace even while I was in Slovakia. But I've seen her work, so I have a closer affinity to that technique. But even when I was in Slovakia, I noted that modern Slovak bobbin lace makers have veered wide of the mark from the traditional patterns used in lacemaking a century or so ago. Now, they create realistic pictures of people, animals, churches, etc. They make framed pieces rather than useful lace objects like tablecloths or decorations for clothing.
So, I'm thinking, even in Slovakia the lacemakers are adapting the techniques away from the traditional. Now, my teacher evidently feels that her techniques have BECOME tradition. They have grown organically out of the old styles and are being created on the very soil and in the footsteps of the older lacemakers, so they are furthering the tradition.
I, on the other hand, have brought my lace pillow to America and am now merging my bobbin lace with Romanian point lace all based on old Russian patterns I've found in a library book. And I'm enlarging the patterns to accommodate my heavier thread. I'm using bright colors throughout my lace. It's my taste...........it might not be good taste, I'll acknowledge that, but I like it. I love making it. I enjoy looking at the finished product.
So, I will continue...............and I will argue that the craft is NOT DEAD, but living in ways that anyone can further by picking up a set of bobbins or a crochet hook and needle.
