Now that you are talking about the Lace Guild.... I've read the information
about the lacemaker's census. At the beginning I thought the idea was very
good. But after talking about it with other Spanish lacers, some questions
arouse, which I hope the Lace Guild members or any other Arachneans may
answer.
I'm a LG member, but am in the "Colonial" category (ie somewhat removed from the heart of things), so I don't *know* the answers to your questions (would love to see them myself). Here are my *thoughts*
1. First of all, we would like to know if you think with this census all
lacers in the world will be really represented.
Not very likely.
In the case of Spain, and I think it is the same in many other areas or countries, there are many lacers, but not so many are connected to the Internet or know how to use a
computer.
The Census was first announced via the LG's bulletin/newsletter/magazine. It has, I seem to remember, a circulation of around 10 thousand, in several countries. Since some of the copies are *group* (rather than individual) subscriptions, its "real time" impact is broader than that. The availability of it via the Internet broadens the reach more, and I don't see any reason why that couldn't, *also*, work in the same way -- ie, *you* see it (and understand the English), and print off the forms for all lacemakers of your acquaintance, urging them to send in their contibutions.
2. If the lacers that take part in the census can send a label of any type
of lace, then the census only serves to get a number of lacers, not the
style of the different areas or countries.
True. But due to the shift (from "lacemaking-for-profit" to "lacemaking for fun") *and* to wider dissemination of techniques/patterns, lacemakers-for-fun are no longer constrained to following the geographical division lines. "Technique smorgassboard" has always been typical of US (because we have no deep-rooted lacemaking tradition of our own, while, OTOH, we have a great mix of people who brought various techniques from their original countries). But it's now spreading to the rest of the world; the best authority on Milanese lace (Read) is from *England*, not from Italy. One of the best designers in Russian Tape (van den Herik) is from Holland, not from Russia. Loehr -- from Germany -- has been doing spectacular work on French and Belgian laces. And that's not acccounting for people who work "outside the box" entirely, creating "traditions" of their own (Suchanek and her wire lace being one such)...
The geographical borders are constantly being broken and re-formed; it's been happening in sciences forever. If someone in your group feels more comfortaable with a lace style that is *not* typical of the region, but *is* typical of *the lacemaker*, then why not?
3. What will be the exact use of these thousands of lace labels? Are they
going to be exhibited in the Guild, in a museum, are they going to be
published somewhere?
I'd like to know the answer to that one myself :) But, if the CD-lace (started by Deborah Robinson, the Editor of Lace) is anything to go by, the results will be arranged as a travelling exhibit in UK first, and then available to other countries (there had been an exhibit, with new additions, arranged by The Lace Museum in CA, US). I expect such an exhibit would, both, make lacemakers more "visible" and -- through sheer numbers of participants -- let all of us know we're not alone...
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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