Virtual Tour:

This lace bodice is made of discarded plastic bags found in the streets of Manhattan that are spun into a high quality, viable yarn using a proprietary technique. It features a variety of lacemaking methods including bobbin lace, needle lace, knit lace, and CNC cut lace.

About the Artist:

Padina Bondar is an award-winning designer, artist, and all-around maker with extensive production, research, and technical abilities in textiles, fashion, and sustainability. Padina is best known for her avant-garde creations using alternative materials and integrating traditional craft and modern-day technology. Her mission is to deliver meaningful outcomes to projects and problems across the design spectrum with intersectionality, justice, equality, sustainability, and ethics at the forefront of her narrative spinning yarn, making lace, developing proprietary tools, and turning trash into wondrous treasures.

Ghostly peripheral iterations of lace in contrasting materials; a redrawing, refiguring, re-envisioning, re- experiencing, reflective glass drawing of a soft tensile lace. These works are created with glass water gilded with 22k vintage/inherited gold leaf. The images are then hand-drawn using a wooden stylus, to remove the negative space around the lace. All images taken from the Lace Archive.

About the Artist:

Patricia Miranda is founder of The Lace Archive, an historical community archive of thousands of donated lace works and family histories; The Crit Lab, graduate-level critical seminars for artists; and MAPSpace exhibition and residency space. Miranda lives and works in NYC and is an artist, curator, and educator. She works with donated repurposed lace and linens in textile installations and community projects.

First image is courtesy of the Artist.

My encaustic paintings are about women around the world and their contributions to the textile arts in particular and to culture in general. My early interest in pattern led me to examine and research textiles. I became especially interested in the work done by women as I increasingly studied the history behind these various fiber arts and their importance to society. Remembering my grandmothers’ crocheting, as well as their stories of doing piecework and working in textile factories, provided a personal history for my art as an Italian-American woman.

About the Artist:

Renee Magnanti received her BFA in Fine Arts from SUNY at Buffalo and her MFA from Tulane University. She lives and works in New York City and has shown her work both nationally and internationally. Her current work in encaustic, prints, and print weaving often incorporates text in the image. She is known for her singular technique of carving in encaustic as well as her distinctive approach of combining prints with weaving.

First image is courtesy of the Artist.

The omentum is a fold of tissue that connects and drapes over your abdominal organs, providing vital protection. It is an essential yet forsaken part of anatomy in our culture.

Belly fat is stored here, in this temporal battleground of shame, insecurity, and scrutiny.

Devastated by my mother’s diagnosis of omental cancer this year, I sought to conjure her healing and exalt her body by methodically crafting a golden lace belly chain.

A contemplative and meticulous practice, making needle lace dilates and stretches time. The resulting object holds the emotions of this critical, expanded season as well as our ineffable bond.

About the Artist:

Amy Keefer is a visual artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hailed as “radical in its romance,” her work is rooted in wearable art, simultaneously addressing textile practices and relational aesthetics. Conscious of the constructs at play when dressing and the cultural resistance of making, her aim is to awaken deep complications surrounding labor, trauma, and commerce using her own body as an exploratory site. Her work has been recognized widely throughout the United States.

First image is courtesy of the Artist.

Begun during the Brooklyn Lace Guild residency at the Threads of Power exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery, the piece was originally intended to illustrate the ease with which one could make pictorial lace when working in needle lace technique. As work proceeded, it became clear that there was a synchrony between architectural ornament and lace technique of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The viewer is left to ponder how aesthetics in such diverse media as stone and lace come together in the formation of a zeitgeist.

About the Artist:

Never formally trained in art, Devon Thein has studied lacemaking for over 50 years and continues to be amazed at the beauty and versatility of lace techniques. Considered by many to be primarily a lace historian, she has had ample opportunity to study historical laces. As a volunteer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she has been exposed to many of the best historical laces and is inspired by their beauty and the ingenuity of the lacemakers who made them.

In an underground bunker, under a greenhouse, a Polish Christian gardener and his nephew helped hide and keep alive 40 Jewish people, represented here as 40 flowers beneath. After half a year of not seeing the outside world, two of the people hiding—my grandparents—decided to move to another hiding location. Several days later the Nazis came, murdered the remaining 38 people, the gardener, and his nephew. The greenhouse was burnt down. “Krysia” was the nickname given to the bunker—the Polish nickname for the name Christine.

About the Artist:

Layla Klinger is a hole maker, working with fiber, light, and code to investigate queer sexual desire/trauma and the conservation of craft through technology. They created site-specific installations for the Little Islands Festival (Sikinos, Greece), New York Public Library (NYC), and FRATZ Festival (Berlin). In 2023, they had their first museum solo show at The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (Houston, TX). Klinger is based in Brooklyn and teaches textiles and soft fabrication at Parsons School of Design.

First image is courtesy of the Artist.

In 2013, I saved a collection of water damaged sports cards from being thrown away and began using them in a series of paintings and sculptures. I eventually realized the identity, culture, and gender implications inherent in my salvaging and manipulating these cards.These pieces are the first in my series of “Velos” or Veils. The veils themselves are made of bobbin and needle lace and bring in elements of architecture or landscape from my family’s homes in Puerto Rico while also recalling religious coverings. The veils are then layered over mixed media baseball cards both obscuring and inviting the viewer to look closer. This series of work has become the group of work most closely tied to both my Puerto Rican heritage and my family’s history.

About the Artist:

Glorimar Garcia is a Brooklyn visual artist, curator, and arts administrator. Born and raised in Ohio, she studied Painting and Art History at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Rooted in personal experience and research, her work explores aspects of identity, memory, culture, and gender. Garcia merges materials and found objects, salvaging discarded items like baseball cards to explore and manipulate their meaning. Significant projects include Cards for Puerto Rico, a benefit exhibition following the devastating hurricanes in 2017, and working with the Kurt Kocherscheidt Estate to create the first digital database of the artist’s work.

Leaf Veneration is an exploration of the overlooked beauty and vital role of leaves in our environment. Drawing inspiration from Byzantine art, where precious and decorated halos draw attention to the key figures, this artwork transposes the concept of veneration onto the natural world by adorning dry leaves with delicate lace halos. It urges contemplation and underscores the leaves’ ephemeral nature, their quiet presence in our lives, their beauty, and their critical contribution of life-giving oxygen.

About the Artist:

Yulia’s academic and creative endeavors are focused on exploring past, present and future technologies and their impact on people who come into contact with them. She fuses analogue and digital practices through her extensive knowledge of human-centred experience design, digital and analogue technologies, materials, and multidisciplinary contexts. She aims to eradicate gadgetry and contextualise physical artefacts, emphasizing meaningfulness and human experience.

First image is courtesy of the Artist.

Through the techniques and materials I consciously choose, my work tells the story of “women’s work.” Female vessels and textile crafts permeate mythology and folktales, alluding to the impact these nameless artisans had on society. Furl (Eve Construction) is a porous form acting as an allegory of the traces of our stories written over time – slowly born, revealing the stitched and sewn-together structures, just as the stories of our present are an amalgamation of personal and communal thought, memory, and experience.

About the Artist:

Sarah J. Hull is a Washington, DC-based artist whose background in architecture and science come together to inform her work. Initially working with hand embroidery techniques, her art practice recently started to include lacemaking as a natural extension to the narratives present in her work. She is active in multiple art organizations between DC and NY and internationally through the UK based Society for Embroidered Work (S.E.W.). She is the recipient of multiple DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellowship Grants.

First image is courtesy of the Artist.

This piece of lace was inspired by a class taught by Maggie Hensel Brown that I took at the online conference Doily Free Zone. While following her class you could use her template or make up your own. So I made my own, which is my story I am currently moving through. I started this during the end of the pandemic and finished while I was back at work. This is my first piece that I ever designed and finished.

I have tried to create lace based on something I am moving through now.

About the Artist:

My name is Shannon. I have been working on Broadway for 26 years in the IATSE Theatrical Wardrobe Union and have worked on various Broadway shows including Ragtime, Spamalot, A Christmas Carol, Lion King and currently Aladdin. I have been making lace since 2017. I love both bobbin and needle lace, but have been doing more needle lace since the pandemic. I give many thanks to people who have taken the time to help teach me the necessary techniques that allowed me to create something of my own!

The Pond is inspired by a small local pond with a fountain, which reflects in the water. A photo of the pond, which is surrounded by trees and grass, was used as the pattern. The technique is bobbin lace using a variety of cotton, silk, and acrylic threads in multiple colors. Depth is accomplished by layering of elements.

About the Artist:

Karen H. Thompson is a lacemaker, designer, teacher, and researcher. From 1998 to present she has been the volunteer curator of the lace collection at the Smithsonian American History Museum. She started teaching virtual classes in bobbin lacemaking in 2020 through the Lace Museum in Fremont, CA, and the Smithsonian Associates. In 2017 she published The Lace Samples from Ipswich, Massachusetts 1789–1790.

Cotton cyanotype of handmade bobbin lace and machine lace; handwoven cotton and wool-nylon-metaloplastic blend (warp) with cotton, merino wool, and mohair (weft), macaroni, and wooden stretcher bars; 12.75” x 9”

As a beginner lacemaker, I have been practicing basic bobbin lace stitches to create forms that I have been meditating upon for the past few years, such as a lattice window and a spiral. I’m also interested in this early photographic method of cyanotypes, which was a way of transmitting lace patterns from teacher to student and around the globe. Lacemakers would prick the blue photograph, attending to the meandering waves inscribed by light rays. The title is indebted to Sora Han and her forthcoming book of poetry, : to regard a wave

About the Artist:

Jen Chen-su Huang is an artist and writer, whose process-driven works interweave strands of craft theory, translation, history, and memoir. She is the recipient of a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship, and her practice has been supported by Luminarts and the Textile Society of America, among others. She holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is currently a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at NYU Tisch and a part-time lecturer at Parsons School of Design.

In this piece I wanted to try using large electrical wire, and I wanted to keep some of the visuals of the lacemaking process in the final result: the paper underneath; the pins holding the thread; the tangle of threads at the end. To me, the result feels both heavy-duty and playful, which is a combination I’m happy with.

About the Artist:

Elliot Lovegrove is an artist and designer from Greenville, South Carolina, currently living in Brooklyn, New York. An impromptu tatting lesson from his grandma began Elliot’s foray into lacemaking, and he now regularly incorporates lace and other textile elements into his work. Elliot frequently uses electronic or industrial materials, while also making reference to other “fine art” forms, highlighting his interest in the many sectors lacemaking touches.

First image is courtesy of the Artist.

Mantra was stitched in cotton needle lace with silk embroidered text as a meditation on the reasons we create.

About the Artist:

Tara Nadolny utilizes embroidery, lacemaking, and weaving to transform needle and thread into tools for art and storytelling. Born in Massachusetts, raised in Wisconsin, and a longtime resident of Brooklyn, New York, Tara draws inspiration from the natural world as well as historical manuscripts and illustration. In addition to her work with textiles, she also engages in storytelling as a documentary producer for film and television.

First image is courtesy of the artist.

Stilt fishing was one of the organic fishing methods practiced during the post-World War II era as a solution for food shortages. This practice can only be found in Sri Lanka and today is a disappearing method. During the pandemic, with the idea of preserving crafts, I commissioned southern coastal beeralu bobbin lace weavers to weave this stilt fisherman motif for my SS21 collection, which was created in the midst of the pandemic (February–June 2020). I drew the artwork and shared it with the lace weavers to create the bobbin lace version of the motif, which was created using gold metallic thread and 100% organic cotton threads.

About the Artist:

Kasuni Rathnasuriya is a designer based in New York City. She is the founder and creative director of the brand KÚR. Her primary work is creating contemporary fashion, accessories, and home wear. Her native Sri Lankan handmade bobbin lace is one of the main crafts that she incorporates into her work. She has been working with Sri Lankan southern coastal bobbin/beeralu lace weavers since 2011 with the idea of preserving dying crafts that had been introduced to Sri Lanka by the Portuguese in the 16th century.

First image is courtesy of the Artist.

This piece is inspired by a nineteenth-century architectural drawing for a wrought iron fence or window grate. With my background in black-smithing, I was eager to see if the patterns in wrought iron fencing could be translated into lace—bringing the cold, hard iron to a softer, more malleable lace. The two media have very similar traits: creating openings that allow the viewer to peer through, but not allowing for a full uninterrupted view of what lies beyond.

About the Artist:

Ev Christie is a multimedia artist from Detroit currently based out of Hell’s Kitchen. They draw inspiration from historic works of art, often clashing two contrasting ideas against each other to create a new perspective upon viewing the original works. Ev began pursuing lace as a way to continue their artistic practice while in New York without access to their traditional media of ceramics and metals.

St. Agnes was paraded naked through Roman streets after she pledged her life to God and refused to marry. Miraculously, long hair sprung out all over her body to shield her from would-be assailants, for which she is venerated as the patron saint of chastity. In a climate in which survivors of sexual assault are dissected in the public eye, this updated relic of St. Agnes serves as protection for those who are not perceived as “perfect victims.” The repeating mouth patterns represent the brave voices of survivors who speak up in the face of censure and revert the shame onto their assailants.

About the Artist:

Elena Kanagy-Loux earned her BFA in Textile Design from FIT, where she was awarded a grant to study lacemaking across Europe for four months in 2015. Upon returning to NYC, she co-founded Brooklyn Lace Guild and completed her MA in Costume Studies at NYU. After spending five years as the Collections Specialist at the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she began a PhD on the history of lace at Bard Graduate Center in 2023.

This freestyle bobbin lace took about 20 pairs of bobbins and used numerous techniques including twilling of threads as described by well-known lace author Ulrike Voelker. Inspiration came from Devon Thein’s image of Ruff Pigeon, a unique emblem of the Brooklyn Lace Guild based on the viral meme Bagel Pigeon. The artist felt that an homage to the Guild was owed as they did so much to keep International Organization of Lace, Inc. members in touch during the pandemic. The lace for the ruff was made around 1985 and is a vintage Bucks point pattern.

Maria has been making lace for over 50 years and especially enjoys sharing her skills with children as she gains much inspiration from teaching them. She was president of I.O.L.I., the USA-based International Organization of Lace, Inc. from 2020 to 2022.

The first image is courtesy of the Artist.

Arbossa is constructed of two layers woven at the same time. The brown threads of the trunk and branches travel behind, amidst, and in front of the green leaves and ground stitches. This is a representation of a very special tree friend of mine.

About the Artist:

Cynthia Madsen has been making art with thread and textiles since she was a young child. She learned to crochet, knit, tat, embroider, and sew from her mother and grandmothers. In 2006 Cynthia studied textile design through the Embroiderers Guild of America and also began learning to make bobbin lace through the International Organization of Lace, Inc. For Cynthia, bobbin lace making is creatively, sensually, and intellectually stimulating – the threads, the bobbins, the sounds, the possibilities!

First image is courtesy of the Artist.