Jane Atkinson: Contemporary Lace

Catalunya Great Lace Day

A highlight of a holiday in Barcelona

April 29, 2007

The advice was: follow the pillow bags.  The lady in front of me on the coach from the station, who had been cuddling her long pillow, produced a little trolly and pulled her pillow away on it like a golf cart, so we had to run to keep up.  All roads led to the sea front, where row upon row of trestles and chairs offered room for thousands of lacemakers, groups from different clubs and towns identified by their banners and aprons, and often with pillow bags co-ordinated in stripes and ginghams in a particular colour.

Behind the lacemakers were the suppliers, particularly impressive being Patrons Roka, whose beautifully printed patterns, ready-pricked on card, were extremely inviting, even to someone well able to design her own. They were disappearing like hot cakes, and many, many pillows were covered in them already – truly a marketing phenomenon, and I wish I were as clued-up. I bought several, but they sugared the pill by giving one a little extra motif for each purchase.

Threads, bobbins, kits, fan sticks, pillows and stands – including the impressive golf-type trolley that holds the pillow for working at any height you desire – suggested that taking the car rather than a plane might be a sensible option another time.  Bobbins came by the bag of 50, but since the Spanish type don’t quite have large enough heads for the thick threads I like to use, I saved my cash for magazines such as Labores de Bolillos.

By far the largest type of laces being made was Torchon; it was obvious that everyone knew how to make it, by the fact that the patterns were being sold without instructions. Ideas of all types were being produced, including some beautiful gloves; so it was great fun when I got home to find some point lace gloves by Roser Boronat in the OIDFA 25th anniversary pattern book.

There were some adventurous ladies making lace in colour and texture, and a group producing some marvellous multicoloured butterflies and moths.

There was also an exhibition of lace in pastel colours, but with a very patient friend in tow I didn’t like to add that since we already had quite a journey back to Barcelona; however, I got told off for not mentioning it since she’d like to have seen it, too.  However, I do have the catalogue which is well worth seeking out.

We managed to find Jenny de Angelis in the throng, and were thrilled to meet up with Pam Mattioli, a far-flung member of Poole Bobbin Lace Circle now living in Spain, who had driven for many hours to reach Lloret.  Their spangled bobbins were creating much interest.

It was due to the help of Jenny and Carolina de la Guardia, contacted via Arachne, that we found out the date of the Great Lace Day, and received invaluable instructions on how to get there. We were thus able to alter the projected date of our visit to take in an unmissable event, which was a great highlight for me, despite all the attractions Gaudi had laid on for us in Barcelona; they at least were moveable feasts, but the lace day may not happen like that again next year, I hear, so we were extremely lucky to see it.  I wonder how they get hold of so many trestles?

Lacemakers lining the sea front at Lloret de Mar.

One of the banners identifying a lace group, which all had their pillows covered in blue stripes.

Completed lace gloves on display, the work of an acomplished gentleman.

A piece of large-scale lace which the maker was interpreting in two ways to cover both sides of a bag

Clockwise from the top: Pam Mattioli with Jenny de Angelis; those ‘golf trolly’ pillow stands; the Patrons Roka stand, including a ‘thong’ in lace, as well as shawls and ties; and another of the stands with a spectacular shawl in thick coloured linen, for which one could buy the pattern.