Veronese Crochet Lace - prizewinner

Every year I long to attend (but never have) the Hand Embroidery and Weaving Exhibition at Valtopina in Perugia. I search the internet for reports from attendees and drool over photos posted on blogs and websites. The region of Umbria is rich in embroidery history and there are so many interesting local techniques. One day I really must attend, if for no other reason than to satisfy my longing to do so.

Along with the various exhibitions at the show, there is always an open competition and this year's theme was Green Monuments of Umbria - the trees. This year, participants were required to demonstrate the development of their ideas for the pattern on paper and then to produce a tablecloth big enough for six settings (hemmed measurement: 140 cm x 160 cm) along with matching napkins (hemmed measurement: 40 cm x 40 cm) with their embroidery or lace ideas applied.

The category of lace was split by two winners using the techniques of Veronese Crochet Lace and a needle lace from the Apuglia region called Punto Maglie.

I wrote to Anna Castagnetti of Ricami a Fili Tesi to congratulate her and asked if she would share some details on the prize-winning piece of Veronese Crochet Lace she made together with Donatella Granzarolo. Here is what she said:

"Donatella made all the Veronese Crochet Lace pieces and I joined them together with needle lace bars covered in buttonhole stitch, after having prepared the holes in the fabric. Each tree is made up of eight pieces (three leaves equal one piece) and the trunk. At the four corners of each insertion there are a further four pieces (the sets of leaves). The insertions are finished around the edges with a cording or overcast stitch surrounded by a row of four sided stitch. Threads used were: DMC Cordonnet Special no. 80 for the buttonhole bars; Anchor Lace no. 20 bobbin lace thread for the Veronese Crochet Lace; Crochet Cotton no. 60 for the rest. I can't tell you how much time it took to make it all, we worked together which doubles the execution time and as we live 50 km away from each other, additional time was required for travel."

Below is a picture of one of the inserts:

Congratulations Anna and Donatella! Thank you for sharing the details of this piece with us and for the great photo!

Veronese Crochet Lace Samples!

Just before I left for Italy I received a delightful package in the mail (I just love getting things in the mail, this strike is killing me!)

Donatella Granzarolo, one of the authors of the book Pizzo di Verona - Veronese Crochet Lace, sent me the above samples that she had made so I could see for myself the loveliness of her work.

I love the intricacy of this lace. Anna Castagnetti, another one of the authors of the book sent me the crochet and cro-tat hooks used to make Veronese Crochet Lace... sizes 1.0 and 1.5!! They are **so** tiny!

Speaking of Anna, there is a lovely little video of her explaining about her work on the Italian program Voce delle Donne [Voices of the Women]. Even if you don't understand Italian, you can see her passion for her work in how she talks about it and the woman interviewing her shows some of Anna's finished pieces of embroidery and lace.

p.s. If you go to Anna's website, you can download the original books on Veronese Crochet Lace published in the early 20th century!

Veronese Crochet Lace - Il Pizzo di Verona

I can finally tell you some exciting news!

If you've been wondering why it's been so quiet on my blog lately, part of the reason is that I've been translating a fascinating text on a nearly-forgotten Italian needlework technique from the early 20th century called Il Pizzo di Verona or Veronese Crochet Lace.

The book will be published in about a month or so and presented at Palazzo Forti in Verona on March 12, 2011 at 11 am. I greatly envy you if you can go!

Bianca Rosa Bellomo will present the book during a lecture about historical events in Verona in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and how they impacted the creator of this lace, Laudomia Spazzi-Gonevino and her family. She will no doubt fascinate you with the story of how the authors of this new book (Anna Castagnetti, Donatella Granzarolo and Bianca Rosa Bellomo herself) researched this technique and it's creator and her family, starting from two all-but-forgotten booklets published in the early 20th century edited by Amelia Brizzi Ramazzotti for the Sonzogno publishing house in Milan.

Also from March 8th - 12th there will be free demonstrations of how to make this exquisite crochet and needle lace during the show Verona Tessile: "Le vie della seta si incontrano a Verona" [Verona Textile Show: The silk roads meet in Verona"].

March 8th is also International Women's Day which is widely celebrated in Italy so it is fitting that there be a celebration of a woman's life at this time.

This new book has some historical information as well as step-by-step instructions and photos for creating this beautiful crochet and needle lace, the text is in Italian and English. It is published by the NuovaS1 publishing house in Italy and I have no doubt that Elena at Italian Needlecrafts will have it for sale as soon as it becomes available. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!