[lace] Prague

[Margot Walker]

I arrived home from the OIDFA Congress yesterday.  I thought I was 
bone-tired at the end of the tour, but I now know that you can get more 
tired than that.  My flight from London was supposed to leave at 12:40 
p.m. on Mon.  It actually left at 3:20a.m. on Tues.  But that's another 
story.  I thought the whole Congress was fabulous.  There were hiccups 
here and there but far fewer than I expected for such a complicated 
event to organize.

I took Milca Eremiasova's 3D lace workshop, where I made a 3D piece of 
lace and started another piece to learn the nontraditional stitches the 
Czechs use and how they manipulate the threads.  Now I can hardly wait 
to make a large 3D wall hanging - but where will I put it?  The laces on 
display at the Congress and in special exhibitions in Prague were 
beautiful.  And then the tour - so much lace, such beautiful villages, 
so much chicken to eat :-).  Between the Congress and the exhibitions at 
Coventry and Gunnersbury in England, I took 300 pictures.

To my surprise, I came home with lots of money.  Everything seemed to be 
very cheap, so I bought lots of thread and some books, mainly exhibition 
catalogues.  I was tempted by some very large pieces of art glass, but 
couldn't figure out how to get them home without breaking them and where 
to display them once I got them home.

After seeing all that Czech lace, I've retained one major lesson:  You 
don't need lots of bobbins and complicated stitches to make beautiful 
lace.  You do need outstanding design.  Most of the lace we saw was very 
simple technically, but the end result was stunning.  An example was a 
face of a woman by Palickova.  The piece was done in black thread and 
99% of the stitches were whole stitch (CTCT) with lots of twists between 
the  stitches.  There was one plait that formed the eyebrow and nose, 
and not more than a dozen leaves.  Extremely simple, extremely 
effective.  I can hardly wait for my pictures to be developed, so that I 
can pour over them for inspiration.

Now to start saving for Athens in 2006.
Margot Walker in Halifax on the east coast of Canada
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