THE VOLOGDA LACES

By Lyubov Tsarevskaya

The Museum of Lacework in Vologda can well be called a museum of beauty. On display are all sorts of the centuries-old handicraft – table napkins, tablecloths, cloaks, capes and collars, which continue to gladden the eye and fill people’s lives with comforting grace.

The art of lacework originated in Europe in the 15th century. In Russia the fine fabric of woven patterns appeared in the 17th century and was brought from abroad. Lacy items of clothing went into fashion in Russia in the 18th century stimulating the appearance of domestic lace makers. The Vologda Region, known for its flax growing industry, became one of the lace-making centers. The first lace-making workshop in Vologda appeared in 1820 and belonged to a local landlady, Zasetskaya. Having a passion for all kinds of needlework, Zasetskaya sent her 10-year-old serf girl, Anna to do a lace-making course in the Yaroslavl province. After she completed the course five years later Anna passed on the art of lace-making to the local girls and young ladies. Work in the lace-making workshop was hard indeed – the women had to toil 16 to 19 hours in poorly lit rooms, so their vision lost acuity by the time they turned 40 or 45. The particularly good ones were forbidden to marry and have families, because their work was believed to be much more important and they weren’t to be pulled away from it. So how did they make the laces?

On a wooden stand they put a bolster filled with straw or sawdust and dressed it in a white pillowcase. The lace was woven on a pattern pinned to a piece of cardboard and the lace-maker saw as she sat down to weave what pattern she was doing and where to place a pin. The laces were made with the help of spindles — a pair of wooden sticks that had a flaxen thread fastened to them. The main lace-making material was flax, which is found in profusion in Vologda. Flax was always highly honoured in Russia and linen clothes were considered sacred for it was widely believed that the first priests and Jesus Christ wore linen. In the pre-Christian period flax was as valuable as gold.

Originally laces in Russia were narrow strips up to 10 meters long and were used for trimming skirts, sleeves and collars. The trimming was mostly circular then. The 19th century introduced more variations, so there appeared large pieces of lacework done bit by bit and connected into a whole panel with the help of a metal hook. The resulting produce included tablecloths, large napkins, capes, bed covers and cloaks. The more complicated the pattern, the greater number of weaving spindles was needed. The more experienced lace-makers used up to 800 pairs of weaving sticks, which is really hard to believe nowadays!

In late 19th – early 20th century the Vologda Region boasted about 40 thousand women lace-makers, so every other Vologda woman made laces either professionally or for her own use. The most popular of the tradeswomen was Anfea Briantseva. She taught her daughter, Sofia, to handle the spindles when she was 5 years old, so by the age of 10 the girl was teaching the trade to her peers. All in all, Sofia prepared about 800 lace-makers keeping the good tradition and handing it down from generation to generation.

Every lace-maker invented a pattern, in most cases a floral ornament. Sometimes, however, you can see a bird with a woman’s head. The bird is believed to tell one’s fortune and by depicting it the lace-maker wanted to appease her in the hope of getting her patronage in life.

The Vologda lace-making trade reached its prime in the years after the Second World War. The demand for the laces was high, with nearly every Soviet woman determined to make them the necessary decorative item of her household. In 1964 a lace-making factory was set up in Vologda which was named “Snezhinka” (or “Snowflake”) after the tablecloth created by Victoria Elfina, the factory’s chief artist. The tablecloth took months of backbreaking work. For four months Victoria laid the pattern on cardboard, then 25 women wove the cloth on fragments for two months, and another three months went to connect the fragments into one whole with a special hook. The result of a nine-month effort was a monumental piece of work which stays unparalleled to this day.

The Vologda factory continues to keep the brand high and the Vologda laces stay popular in Russia and abroad. Russian celebrities often place orders for stage outfits with the Vologda lace-makers and never go disappointed since the laces, done Russian-style, look graceful and out of this world. http://www.ruvr.ru