Tamara, I read with great interest your answer about russian lacemakers. Here is an address where they say a little about Vologda:
http://www.vologda-oblast.ru/main.asp?V=316&LNG=ENG
Thanks. It was with amusement that I noticed Snezhinka's transformation from "Union" to "firm".. :)
I visited the Snezhinka center in Vologda in 1991 just a few months before the fall of USSR and I have often thought since then about the lacemakers working there? Do they still have work there? Who buys their laces now?
In the summer of 1996, an Arachnean e-friend went on a cruise to Alaska. He found some Vologda lace there (Anchorage?) and sent me a piece (the collar which formed the core of my IOLI article on raised gimp). It seemed that the collective rode out the change of the system virtually unscathed, and business was as usual. But, this past summer, when Clay went on a similiar cruise, she found no trace of it in any of the spots their ship docked. So I don't know what's happening there.
In the center, they also had a new and well organized museum with a young and very dynamic director.
They also had patronage of afternoon classes in lacemaking for children in local schools. Don't know if that's going on, either.
I hope this year in Prag, at the OIDFA congress, we have the opportunity to meet Russian lacemakers.
With the OIDFA membership dues lowered for the Eastern Europe, it's possible that a few more lacemakers in Russia might be *aware* of OIDFA's existence. How many might have the wherewithal to attend a "do" on their own might be something else. The few "token" ones people have "sighted" before, would have been sponsored by some organisation (such as Snezhinka), which would have considered such sponsorship a -- possibly -- good investment. If however, it did not result in many sales/general opening of new/broader markets, chances are that the limited resources available will be funnelled elsewhere.
At least, I'm looking forward to seeing *you* in Prague <g> ----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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