Going to the site about the Tonder Lace Festival, I read the description of one of the workshops which contained this line:
"In 1883 the Maria School in St Petersburg was founded and then in 1917 the Kalinin School in Moscow. It was also at that time that the Vologda Lace Union was established. In Vologda today there is a Lace Organisation, ‘Snezinka’, with 6000 members." Recalling a conversation we had some time ago which was prompted by the thesis about the "growth" of lacemaking. We were trying to figure out the number of lacemakers in different countries, which due to the vagaries of statistic gathering we decided to extrapolate from memberships of lace organizations. The International Old Lacers always hovers between 1500-2000. I think someone put the number of Lace Guild members in the 5,000 range. I thought I heard 800 for Australia. Suspicions were expressed that the German organization was the largest, but I don't believe a numerical estimate was ever made. The thought that there are 6,000 Russian lacemakers belonging to an organization almost 100 years old and in only one region of a very vast country blows my mind. If only they could join our internet community! Is anyone in touch with them? Devon - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
