Dear Jeri I am sending this to Arachne as well as personally as it has quite a bit of lace content. (I hope it will be OK Avital, to keep the previous posts in). My friend Luise has worked the samples in the magazine but it has only whetted her appetite to know more. She is like that! Feel free to send the museum info to Devon Thien. She may be able to apply some pressure through the connection of museums to at least preserve correctly all the âcolonialâ artefacts. We do have some very good new museums like the Apartheid museum and many apartheid era sites like the Mandela House and Lilliesleaf farm are being turned into museums. It is the older history that is at risk. The War Museum in Bloemfontein commemorates the Anglo/Boer War and the concentration camps. It has been closed this year for a major refurbishment and is due to re-open next March, for the centenary of the Womenâs monument which is in the grounds of the museum. We can only wait and see if it has been changed at all when it reopens. I must tell you though that 2013 has been designated âThe year of Laceâ by the museum in honour of the Koppies Lace School and Emily Hobhouse. Thanks to the tremendous amount of work in organising it by our chairman Louis Oosthuizen, our guild, The Witwatersrand Lace Guild, is now making a large lace banner to be presented next March at the centenary celebrations. As nobody else volunteered, I have been delegated to make the monument itself in lace. It is a tall obelisk with 2 women and a dead child at the base and lower levels at each side depicting war scenes. It is quite a challenge. I have done the obelisk and plinth and am now taking a few deep breaths before tackling the female figures in Withof techniques. Other members are making individual flowers of the veld to surround it. I will send more information as it unfolds nearer to the time. Greetings from Janis Subject: Re: Margaretenspitzen is in South Africa! - 2
Dear Janis, Marji is a close friend of Tess Parrish here in Maine. Therefore, we have had information about Margaretenspitzen for quite some time. One member of the Lacemakers of Maine has been experimenting with it since early this year. She is not very experienced in the needlearts, but has had success. So, your friend should be able to work from the magazine. Yes, a book is in the works, but I do not want to add pressure to the matter of Marji's publishing that, so did not mention it. It seems that you are going through what Eastern Europe experienced in the 20th C. It is most unfortunate. I hope that your lace organization can request special access to the lace collection, or maybe even have some say in where it is housed in the future so that it can be accessed and studied. I am familiar with the history of South Africa. Mary Gostelow of England wrote a very informative book, published in 1976, "Embroidery South Africa" which included the history of the Boers. My library also has 2 books on whitework embroidery by Hetsie vanWyk of South Africa, from the 1970's. Very difficult to obtain at the time, but even back then I was a persistent book collector. Would you mind if I sent the museum information to Devon Thein? She works as a volunteer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I think they would be interested in what is happening in South African museums. Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center In a message dated 8/22/2012 4:28:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, thelacepl...@hotmail.co.za writes: Hello Jeri Thank you for taking the trouble to write to me about the Piecework magazine. Actually, my friend Luise who is wanting to learn more about Margaretenspetzen was sent a copy of the article by a friend of hers and gave a copy to me. She has emailed to Maji Suhm and I believe that there will shortly be a book about it. I then remembered that Dora was trying to promote it some years back and sent me a knotted Fox in our bookmark exchange. I had it for quite a time but then gave it to my grandson as he took a fancy to it. I stick mainly to bobbin lace but Luise is crazy about all the more obscure types of lace and other crafts. Wish I could have gone to Caen too but I am saving hard to go to the next congress in Adelaide as I can visit my son and grandchildren in Melbourne on the same trip. In South Africa, we lacemakers are quite a close knit âfamilyâ as we have a government that is not interested in anything that is âEurocentricâ. Our president even gave a speech very recently, saying that we should âdecolonialise our museumsâ! I was at the Johannesburg Art Gallery recently and all the Dutch old masters have disappeared (hopefully in correct storage) as well as the lace collection. All have been replaced by African art. We are having a lace convention in Bloemfontein in October though, in honour of Emily Hobhouse. She started the first lace school in South Africa and did a lot of good works to help the destitute Boer women after the Anglo/boer war. Next year is the centenary of the Womenâs monument in Bloemfontein, where Emilyâs ashes are buried. Greetings from South Africa and from Janis - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
