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The Author

Italiano

My name is Alessandra; I live in Rome, I'm married with two sons and work at the Italian Senate as parliamentary reporter. 

I discovered bobbin lace in late '80s, after a trip to Sansepolcro; I learnt by myself the classical Italian non continuous lace, following the instructions from the book "Sogni nelle mani" by Antonia Busi, then I started attending lace lessons from my present teacher, Graziana Del Guercio. In this way I could approach also continuous bobbin lace: Torchon, Bedsfordshire, Cluny, Binche. And I'm still learning...

 

I had the opportunity to take a look at the world of lace in other countries. In my opinion, there is more attention for this kind of work of art abroad; in particular, I admired the re-discover and diffusion of ancient ways to make lace, as well as the great work for translating the lacemaker's movements into an universal code and the effort, as to project and design, to create a modern lace. I could also know of the activity of a lot of groups and associations that, even by Internet, try to spread lace knowledge as much as they can.

As to Italy, the art of lace, that in the past centuries was so important, seemed to be almost ignored. You could find it in the places where it was traditionally worked, but it was not so easy; the technique was often practised and learnt in family, from mother to daughter, so losing little by little in difficulties and beauty.

Something has been changing in the '80s: schools and associations were born everywhere and there's a growing interest and a request of information, for the history and technique of lace. At present, we live a great revival of this art, also defined as a season of Renaissance.   

My goal is to tell the special story of this lace age and give my contribution to the spread of a real lace culture: that's because I decided to put on this web site.