This week’s Limerick Post has an article on Limerick Lace, featuring lace maker Eileen Browne and referring to the Amazing Lace book and exhibition as well.
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The launch of the Amazing Lace book and exhibition
And finally, the big day arrived! More than 100 people came to the launch. The Deputy Mayor of Calais, Pascal Pestre, was the guest of honour invited to open the exhibition. Calais has a very strong lace tradition and it is the home of a lace centre titled International City of Lace (Cite Internationale de la Dentelle). Mike Fitzpatrick, the artistic director of Limerick City of Culture 2014, and Sheila Deegan, the Arts and Culture officer, were also present. Among the special guests was Veronica Rowe, who is the grand daughter of Florence Vere-O’Brien, one of the most important names in the history of Limerick lace.
The echoes in the media were brilliant! Thank you very much to all who were present, and don’t forget the exhibition will be open until March 2015! The Amazing Lace book is available for sale at the museum and in the O’Mahony book shop.
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- Welcome everybody!
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- Jacqui Hayes making the introduction
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- Mathew Potter – the book author
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- Jacqui Hayes
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- Interest in the dress installation
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- Nicholas Ward and Suzanna Melinn
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- Photo by Press22.ie
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- Mrs. Veronica Rowe (Photo by Press22.ie)
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- Photo by Press22.ie
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- Lady Perry’s dress on display
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- The display at the entrance
Media echoes – Limerick Leader
Today’s Limerick Leader has an article by Dr. Matthew Potter on the history of Limerick Lace.
Below an excerpt:
Limerick lace created a rich material culture.
Over many decades, it produced a large output of lace products, from dresses, christening shawls and ecclesiastical robes to handkerchiefs and doilies. It was worn by thousands of women, including a few who figure prominently in the pages of history, such as Queen Victoria, American First Lady Edith Roosevelt and Countess Markievicz.
A visit to Moyross Threads
Gabriela visited the “Moyross Threads” group on Thursday, 4 December 2014, to collect their pieces, and found them at work. Here they are after having received their invitations to the ‘Amazing Lace’ book and exhibition launch.
The members of the group were involved in the Communities of Culture programme organised by the Hunt Museum. They expressed their wish to learn more about Limerick lace, and Carrie Lynam from the Kilkenny Craft Gallery was invited by Sorcha O’Brien, Access Officer at the Hunt Museum, to work with the Moyross group.
Here’s the ladies’ work which was exhibited in the Watch House Cross Library and in The Hunt Museum:
This video, also made as part of the Communities of Culture programme, gives an insight into these crafters’ practices:
Setting up the exhibition
Eileen O’Caffery’s first communion veil was made by a neighbour. Eileen remembers how the lady had painted all the walls in her courtyard in white, to create better light for the lace making.
The day Eileen brought her veil into the museum was special, and the set up was a real ceremony.
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- Eileen’s first communion veil
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- Studying the detail
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- The mannequin
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- How does it look?!
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- This is better!
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- Closing the glass case
Bringing in the “Enlaced” dress installation wasn’t an easy job! The mannequin had no legs, and we had to find a solution to give the lady the vertical position she deserved. While Gabriela was running around the city collecting the last lace contributions, Suzanna attached the already received ones to the sleeves, including the NFC tags underneath each of them. We finally managed to take a photo of the dress, but the electronics embedded in the table still needed attention.
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- Where will the dress go?
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- Mesmerizing photo!
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- The mannequin arrived
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- Square NFC tag? Not so nice!
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- Where should this go?
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- Suzanna attaching the pieces
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- Right arm done!
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- And the left!
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- A photo for the report, quick!
It is the turn of the ecclesiastic lace to come out of storage. This is an important part of the exhibition.
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- Admiring the ecclesiastic lace
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- Amazing! Amazing lace!
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- How will it look?
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- And it’s in place!
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- Finally the tablet case is here!
Contributions to the dress by contemporary lace makers
We issued a call for lace pieces in October, as we wanted to show that the Limerick lace tradition is still alive.
We reached out to the public, and we received five contributions:
- Eileen McCaffery – Good Shepherd Limerick Lace group, Limerick (two pieces)
- Fernanda Thoma, Kenmare Lace group
- Pauline O’Leary and Ursula Dundon, Moyross Threads, Limerick
Kenmare Lace Festival – March 2015
Limerick lace workshops will be among the ones offered during the Kenmare Lace Festival which will take place next year between 19-22 March 2015.
Book your place- it’s never too early!
The Limerick lace-inspired dress
For her master project, Suzanna Melinn (currently studying Interactive Media in UL) is working on an interactive installation including a dress and a number of lace-made/lace-inspired artefacts.
Trying to understand better how museum visitors would appreciate and interact with the future installation, Suzanna presented an improvised dress and a number of wearable artefact to five potential visitors (recruited from both staff and students ranks) in the design studio at the University of Limerick. The feedback was extremely useful for fine tuning the design of the installation. We would like to express our gratitude to the volunteers who gave their time!
The Limerick Lace project
“Limerick Lace” is one of the 109 “made in Limerick” projects that were funded under the Limerick- National City of Culture 2014 initiative. The project is undertaken by Limerick Museum & Archives and its main objectives are to design and create an exhibition of Limerick Lace for the Limerick Museum and Archives, and to produce a book on the History of Limerick Lace.
After a brainstorming session last year when the application was prepared and when the idea of a dress came up, the organisers started meeting periodically to work on the project.