E-book Secrets of the Bobbin Lace From the Liptov Region of Slovakia

Book title: Secrets of the Bobbin Lace From the Liptov Region of Slovakia

Language: English (Slovak version is available here)
Number of pages: 121 pages, Letter page format
Format: pdf file, 249 MB, patterns published as vector drawings
The book includes: 55 pattern drawings and their variations.

Book demo version: available here

Brief book description:
Apart from its demanding technical elements, the Liptov bobbin lace is challenging also due to its dense structure which makes pattern identification rather difficult. The lace makers who, in their time, had excellent command of how to work the lace, are not among us anymore. Working methods for many lacemaking patterns, as can be seen on the old pieces of cap lace, have long been forgotten. The only way how to reveal these patterns was their thorough study, often with magnifying glass, unravelling the still existing lace items, meticulously recording each step, and testing them in reconstruction. In this field, Mrs. Mária Čobrdová has done enormous scope of this exacting effort. Twenty years later, together with her co-workers, she is presenting here one part of their enthusiastic and outstanding work. This work pays tribute to imagination and manual skill of our ancestors and contributes to preservation of our cultural legacy. This book encourages the contemporary population to get to know and further develop the established values committed to us quietly, without any horn-tooting. May the book be received as a tribute to unknown makers from the generations past to guide you in making your own masterpieces.

The Liptov Lace phenomenon:
Those uninvolved may wonder why such care should be spent on historical lace from an obscure Slovak region. The answer is that the Liptov lace, due to its advanced character, is an example of top technical skill. The particular effect of the archaic bobbin lace had been achieved by a combination of intricate pattern stitches mastered by the old lace makers. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the original lace patterns could have been mastered only by a few old ladies.

What we consider today as expertise in lace making proficiency, in the old days was a common craft of every country woman. Working the lace was passed down in families, from one generation to the next. There had been no written recordings whatsoever, until the second half of the 20th century, when the regional lace patterns were first documented nationwide. Yet, due to its complexity, the Liptov lace was left aside. Our Liptov lace books fill this gap and apprehensibly introduce the art of the trade to the modern lace maker.

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