In a message dated 10/18/04 10:48:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Dear Lacers, having read some of your reports about the Halasi Lace, > I thought you might be interested about my visit to Kiskunhalas and > Kalocsa in 1984. Alas the report is fairly long but I could send it in > seperate articles if you like. > > Dear Dora, This is a most generous offer. It covers a time period when the situation in Kiskunhalas was quite different - before Hungary became an independent nation. I would be most grateful for the information you compiled in 1984, and will share it with the lacemakers in Budapest - through my friend who now lives there. The hardback book "Halasi Csipke", or "Halas Lace", or "Halaser Spitze" (in Hungarian/English/German languages), which is a history and catalog of this lace, came into my library in 1996, ISBN 963-03-40895. I have another edition, published in 2000. In the history text it says of the 1980's: "In 1981 financial support from the state ceased and demand for laces was restricted to a few pieces sold in hard-currency shops for foreign tourists. In 1982 Gyorgyi Lengyel wrote a book - "Kiskunhalas - The Town of Lace" which was published by the Halas Lace House. It was only exhibition which kept Halas Lace alive in the 1980s. In August, 1983 there was the first International Lace Biennial in Brussels where the folk artists, Mrs. Laszlo Nagy Szeder and Mrs. Ferenc Puspoki participated with pieces of their own creation and design...." Pat Earnshaw's book came out in the next decade, in 1992. Because we cannot predict what will happen in specific locations around the globe, it is important for lace-related information to be shared so it is not lost. I have met some women in Hungary (with whom I could not talk directly because of the language barrier) who are working feverishly to reconstruct the stories of the large variety of laces that were made in that country during the 20th C. years when it was occupied by the Germans and Russians. They are meeting with the very old lacemakers to gather their memories and patterns. It would not surprise me to hear that this is happening throughout Eastern Europe. If others on Arachne agree, I would suggest if you receive 10 or more requests for your 1984 information, it should come to the list. Even though there are many more members, from my experience, most never respond to postings. Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace & Embroidery Resource Center - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
