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Handmade lace bows out
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Lace-making as an art flourished in days gone by. With the advent of new timesaving gadgets, such arts and crafts were content to lie dormant in the few hands that were adept at it. This art of lace making is almost dead in Kochi, where it once thrived, PRIYADARSHINI SHARMA discovers.
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Teresa making lace at her home.
IT ALL began with the lace tablecloth. Not to mention the lace coasters on the side tables, where the drink filled glasses of the guests rested. The table linen was a conversation piece, so much so that the next day, the guests reassembled, to be taken to a convent in the city where this exquisite handwork was being done.
"Oh, we stopped this craft nearly three years ago. I am so sorry to disappoint you all, but we are no longer making lace at the convent... and not that I know of any place where it is being done. This is rather strange, because just two days ago, we had to refuse a busload of tourists who came here in huge anticipation. Their tourist guide was embarrassed as they showed me foreign guide books, which mentions Kochi as a centre of handmade lace," said the nun, looking visibly apologetic. "We closed the embroidery and lace making unit as it was not very viable. What you had seen earlier were about 300 girls, working over frames and cushions, making lace and table linen of the finest quality. After we disbanded the unit, nobody knows where the girls have gone. Maybe they do embroidery in their homes, but there's nothing organised anymore."
Elizabeth and Jisha embroidering over a frame.
A search among other convents in the city and Vimalalayam, a college of handicrafts and related arts, made it clear that lace making was virtually dead and the very few who still carried the relic of the Belgian nuns were fading fast.
It cannot be called alarming as it is no life-and-death situation, but the dying of a foreign art, which once thrived in our city, is a matter of grief.
Kochi was known for its lace made at the convents and other centres. And very prestigious stores in the metro cities of our country showcased them. Tourists bought them in bulk, as they were reasonably priced and the handwork is now a rarity.
A thorough combing of the cityskirts threw up an old lace maker. Teresa, Mavunkal House, Kannamally, is how she introduced herself. At 73, Teresa is cheerful and walks erect. "I learnt lace making from Sr Scholastica, an Indian nun, 50 years ago, who in turn was taught by Mother German, a Belgian. It took me two whole years to master the art, after which I was asked to teach lace making to the girls. From visualising a design, to materials, to usage of colours, we decide everything. Earlier, the nuns would get patterns and I learnt from them."
Lace making apparatus with pegs, pins, cushion and thread
For bobbin lace, the motif is drawn on parchment that is placed on a cushion. Thread is worked around small pins that are stuck into the cushion along the lines of design. Teresa takes a whole day to weave three small circular flower motifs, which she joins to complete a sari border that she is making on order.
"When the nearby convent wound up its lace making unit they gave me this set of pegs, spindles and the whole lace making apparatus. Today, I get a meagre Rs. 20 for a single motif and at my age, sitting alone, this work keeps me busy. But no youngster is ready to learn the art, as it is not paying. Earlier, the convent used to find buyers for our work, lots of people from other countries, but now there are very few takers. Machine made lace is cheaper and available in plenty. This is very time consuming but it once flourished in Kochi."
As one sees the lace emerge from between the pegs, threads and the deft movement of Teresa's hands, one is struck by the finesse of the art, the sophistication and the effort required to weave it. Now, Teresa gets a few orders from old contacts and some well wishers who take her work along to Bangalore and sell it for her. Once upon a time, she had represented the art in Chennai and Delhi in Handicraft Melas where it sold like hot cakes. Today the scene is different. "I must be one of the few who know how to weave bobbin lace," says an unassuming Teresa.
In a home close to her, an aunt-niece duo, Elizabeth and Jisha, spend their time embroidering tablecloths, serviettes and handkerchiefs. They also make fillet lace. This is made on a frame. The net is weaved on to the frame and then pattern is worked in between the squares. It is tedious job and the ladies make very small bits of lace squares, as the cost of the end product is high. Many times Petite point embroidery is done in fillet lace, turning them into striking pieces.
The lace makers are a vanishing lot. Overridden by modern machine made lace, poor returns for extreme hard work and no demand, the nimble fingers of these ladies lie idle. Even as of today, all along the coastal belt, there exists this untapped expertise in a number of young women, but is not practised due to the lack of an organised infrastructure. . Under the auspices of the nuns, lace making once flourished, but today the art is as good as dead. No government assistance to revive this cottage industry seems under way, perhaps no one is even aware that such an art existed and thrived. The famed lace maker for all practical purposes seems dead and gone.
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