Now, That’s Some Lace!

I’m sure you’ve all had one of those serendipitous events.  You know, you planned for one thing and it just wasn’t meant to be, but then you got to do or learn something you never would have done in a million years.

For me it was visiting the Lace Study Center at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.  First, I wasn’t planning to be in Australia, and second, I’m not a lace person.  A little background: I’ve never been a lace person.  I remember when I was a little girl, if my mom bought me anything with lace, I’d get my scissors and cut it off.  No scratchy stuff for me!  Training bra with lace?  Get out the scissors.  Let me clear up another thing. The Powerhouse Museum isn’t a museum about electricity; the building was the former powerhouse.  It’s got a bit of everything.  My friend saw that there was a lace study center and wanted to see it.  Of course it wasn’t scheduled to be open—it was just a happy accident.  Now that place has some lace!  We must have spent hours pulling open the drawers , looking at all the pieces.  The volunteers were so generous with their knowledge, and we got quite an education.

Here are a couple of my favorites.

I think if my mom had bought me a dress with the car lace on it, I would have let it stay. The second piece was part of the Powerhouse Museum 2nd International Lace for Fashion Award (2002, I think).  It was made with a hot glue gun.  Yep, you read that right—hot glue. I’m sure that would not have made me “itchy.”

Which brings me to part two of this post.  Don’t ask me how, but somehow in my web surfing today, I ended up at the Lace Study Center website.  Wouldn’t you know, it’s time for the Lace Exhibition.  This time it’s called Love Lace. If you can’t get to Sydney this year, pop on over to the website and see the amazing pieces they’ve got on display.  If you find yourself hooked, like I was, watch the interview with the exhibition designers Camilla Block and Neil Durbach.  You’ll see not only the amazing pieces but the exhibition space. With portholes in the walls, the exhibition space is, like the lace it contains, an open-work structure.  But the sinuous walls make wonderful backgrounds for the shadows cast by these amazing pieces of art.  You’ll wish you had some of this lace in your home.