(Please forgive the delay in telling the next part of the nun's story, but I have been giving two important lectures, one on weaving, the other on embroidery and they took a lot of preparation.)
Pauline and I were looking at the lace in the Convent Treasury Museum, Zadar. Then we became aware of the sweet singing voice of the nun stewarding the exhibition. She was singing Plain Song, unaccomapnied to a group of students. It was quite delightful. As detailed in the last episode, she told us she had started to make bobbin lace. Her name was Sister Ioana, which translates as Sister Joan. We asked about the lace and the richly embroidered vestments. Then she told us how, when the uprising and Balkan war started in 1991, they feared that the Convent and all its contents would be destroyed. They planned to save some of the Convent Treasures, but only had limited room or safe places to hide them. So they decided to limit the amount by date. This meant that no lace or embroidery dating to after 1800 was saved, so no 19th century textiles remain at all. No wonder we were looking at this beautiful Milanese lace from the 17th and 18th centuries. The story behind the lace made it all the more precious. Then Sister Joan invited us to go downstairs and see her lace and pillow. The pillow was the large, circular Belgian flat type, with Continental plain bobbins, as she had learned her lace in that country. She had just started on a pattern of a Cross in torchon. Pauline asked if I could take her photo and she agreed. It came out well. She was desperate for lace patterns and we said we would send her some from England, as she could not write to us first, but was abe to answer. Pauline has found some nice patterns of crosses etc, and we look forward to a lace correspondence and friendship. Next - a trip to the Island of Pag. -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 3028 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
