I would like to tell you about a wonderful talk I went to this morning.
Professor Richard Brooksbank gave a talk on his great grandmother,
Louise Lienaux Vergauwe. She was a young mother in World War 1 in
Belgium, Her husband was drafted into the army and she managed to
evacuate her children to Holland while she stayed in Belgium.
During this time she taught herself to make lace from books and chose to
demonstrate her anger at the situation, in lace. She only made 5 lace
pictures, each about 40 x 50 cms, and one lace fan.
1. 'Defense of the Yser' depicting the german eagle on the back of the
Belgian lion.
2. 'The prediction' depicting the Belgian lion holding the /german
eagle down while the British bulldog lifts his leg over the eagles head,
and the French cockerel and the Bussian bear attack the eagle.
3. 'Belgium bowed but not defeated'. 2 women, the belgian one being
supported by the another.
4. 'America enters the war' with the Statue of Liberty and a so
realistic picture of Kaiser Wilhelm.
5. 'King Albert
6. 'Peace' a lace fan with irises and a mother and child.
The lace is amazing with the use of stitches etc giving a 3D effect to
the pictures. After the war, when the family was reunited, she never
made any more lace. Although she received awards for the laces and
received offers to buy them, she never sold them but during WW2, when
she had to flee Belgium she posted the fan to her sister in England as
it was her most precious piece, and took the others with her.
They are apparently, now in the Museum Communaux (is this the museum of
lace and costume?)in Brussels.
There is so much more to the story and it was absolutely fascinating. I
am so inspired by the quality of the lace and the story behind it. There
is a book about it called The Story of Ma's Lace but it is out of print.
I begged Prof Brooksbank to let me know if it is republished and he is
thinking about it.
Has anyone seen these laces in Belgium? I have tried to google more
about this story but can find nothing. If there is any more information
about it, I would love to hear it.
This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear this talk on lace when
we are so far away from the centres of lace in Europe and we all felt so
privileged.
Janis in South Africa, about to go to bed and dream about being able to
make such amazing lace.
Janis Savage
t/a The Lace Place,
P O Box 2126,
Honeydew, 2040,
South Africa
www.thelaceplace.co.za
blog: a lacemakers blog
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