RussianLace

RUSSIAN LACE
by Angela Thompson © 2000

When I started bobbin-lace making way back in 1976, I found the Russian Tape Lace far easier to do than the usual beginners Torchon Lace. Little did I think that in 1999 I would have the privilege to visit Russia on a Waterways river tour and see lace-makers working the traditional Tape Lace designs.

The tape, which can be worked with as few as six pairs of bobbins, forms convoluted patterns which loop back and forth. Borders are continuous, but in a finished piece, the tape ends where it first started.

The pillow is bolster-shaped, supported by a stand and the cylindricalwooden bobbins are large enough to give weight to the heavy linen threads.
As the work progresses, the tape is joined with 'sewings' where the sections meet. The bobbin is passed through a thread loop drawn out with a crochet hook, always kept on the pillow.

This lace possibly has its origins in the early tape laces of Northern
Italy. Some Russian laces feature a pattern of little holes within the tape,
reminescent of Milanese Lace.

The Ladies of the Court of Imperial Russia may well have favoured the more delicate laces of France and Flanders, but for the country people, the tape-laces provided an ideal decoration that was part of a rich peasant culture. It was used to border curtains and bed-covers, to edge embroidered aprons and scarves and the important ritual 'towels' used in religious and
family ceremonies. These were draped over windows, mirrors and Holy Ikons.

There were a number of peasant lace-making centres active during the 17th and 18th centuries, each with its own distinctive forms. Some featured exotic animal designs and vermicular tape patterns were joined with a mesh ground.

Vologda Province became renowned as a lace-making area in the late 18th century. The locally produced linen thread was especially fine, well-suited to the floral motifs worked in continuous tape lines joined by a net-work of brides. Some designs were enriched with the inclusion of a coloured silk thread worked within the tape to form a raised chain effect.

Alternatively, patterns were enlivened by working the ornamental mesh ground in coloured silk or even metal threads. By the mid 19th century a plainer lace was preferred.

Other important lace-making centres were established in Eletz, Riazan and Kirovsk. In Yaroslavl Province the early lace was distinguished by bold patterns with a diamond and square patterned ground mesh formed by brides with picots.

Lace-making continued until 1917, when after the Revolution, the workers became better organised and better paid. Craft Schools were set up under Communist rule and artists were encouraged to raise the design standards of the lace.
The first lace that I discovered in Russia was on a stall outside the Monastery in Yaroslavl. I chose a delicate little mat worked in the form of a snow-flake and a collar with the decorative chain-patterned tape and a bobbin-mesh ground.
It was not until our river-boat had travelled north, to the town of Goritsy, that I saw the lace-makers with their pillows. This was the true Vologda lace. Here I bought a butterfly and a figurative design of an Angel.

Even further north, in chilly Lake Onega, we called at Khizi Island to see the famous wooden Churches, built entirely without nails. In a tiny wooden shop I found my lovely embroidered cloth, bordered with coloured torchon bobbin lace and joined with lace inserts.

Like the continuous tape, my life has come full circle as my lace-making knowledge gives greater enjoyment to the possession of these beautiful pieces of lace.

Bibliography:
Russian Embroidery and Lace with a foreword by Santina Levy.
Thames and Hudson
Russian lace Making by Bridget M.Cook. Batsford