I hope to find you well and welcome to this page and blog! In my last newsletter I was writing about how it is important to share your story… It is important to make sure we hear other stories so that we can learn, create and thrive…. With this in mind, I was writing to my subscribers and asked them to share their own Romanian Point Lace Story…. How they started… What makes them fall in love with such antique lace making method….Etc….
And here I would like to share an a story from Marg. She is a lovely lady who came to my classes and Brisbane and fall in love with RPL and it;s threads.
Read and get inspired!
My Romanian Point Lace story. I’ve always loved making lace – started crocheting when I was a teenager and progressed to tatting not that much later. When I was about 30 I “found” bobbin lace, and started making torchon lace in earnest – as I always taught myself the various types of lace I’d done. I worked in a hospital, and one day a patient gave me a piece of lace that I didn’t recognize. For about 15 years I’d look at it in amazement, and then one day I saw lace that Lorena was making, and realised then that the gift was a Romanian Point Lace doily. I just had to learn how to do it, and now I’ve been making RPL (on and off) for nearly 4 years. I don’t have a favourite stitch; I love the traditional form of it best, but the things Lorena makes are amazing and truly inspirational. I can’t remember the name of the lady who gave me the doily, but I still have it and treasure it, and I’m sure she would be happy that she inspired another person to start making RPL.
Now let me tell you that Marg’s story reminds me of something that happen to me in Brisbane. As I was teaching lace as usual a lady named Lorraine contacted me….. to meet her mother who is way beyond 90 years. I am not sure what it;s all about and as I was asking further she said that her mother made RPL when she was younger and would like to meet me. I was surprised and amazed how far a little lace can take me. It truly made my day and reassured me that it;s the right path to teach this fantastic craft.
Thank you Marg for sharing your story with us!
Looking forward to see more pieces made by you and others that I teach!
XO,
Lorena
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First of all, I wish you a wonderful last day of 2018! With that in mind I get this out of my mind! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Now I want to THANK YOU , all for a massive year! 2018 has been good, bad, a mix of all emotions, of ups and downs of love and discoveries, of learning, of hope and joy!
I hope you guys celebrate the year, and what is yet to come!
This is what you can aspect for INK & LACE for 2019!
More workshops -starting in March with this one- click HERE!
More positive thinking, finding yourself with journals and ART
I am thinking to reopen the Secret FB Group page about RPL- so if this is something you are interested in, please get in touch and comment below! Feedback is much appreciated!
I am also considering getting more in touch with colours and art- Let me know if this is something you might want as well!
I know, Self Love is a big deal these last years, and I am still not sure if people really understand it or acknowledge how important it is and because we are all different, it will mean something different to all of us.
Sometimes we are so busy with our lives that we do not see outside the box… We drown in guilt, pain, sorrow, stress and so much more….. Stress is today such a big factor that we literary forget about our self.
I wan to share with you how I build up Self Love…..and what I do to take care of my mental state, my body and personal growth.
Step One
Find your happy place.….Yes, find your happy place… This could be your walk in closet, or a place at the beach, even your special place in the garden…. wherever it might be, make it yours. Sit there and do not think about tomorrow, or the bills you need to pay. You need to connect with yourself and bills, worries, stress are not welcome in your happy place!
My happy place is the bathtub. I know how that sounds, but it;s true. It;s simple, available and comfortable at home. From the economic point of view it;s great as well. So this is what I do. My happy place starts with a hot bath, where I add bath salts, some with lavender infuse, fresh herbs like sage from the garden, lemons and orange slices if I have in the house as well as flowers…. Now to this I add crystals, like Agate, Rose Quartz and Amethyst, Himalayan salt.
Step Two- No Comparisons
It is very important that we stop to compare our self with others. This goes for your work, your marriage, your parent style, everything you can think of. Once you let go of this, you will feel much better, not only for yourself, but you will discover that the freedom to create, the freedom to think free is back in your life.
I have done this and so have you! It’s just inviting bad energy in your life. Get rid of it, now!
Step Three- Do something you are good at!
You need to find something you are good at. For me, it’s ART. It boosts the self -esteem and makes you feel great, productive and you gain a lot of positive energy when you do something you love. You are building self -love! If you are interested in this particular print to remind you the Self-Love is important click here. So if my thing is art, your might be pilates, cooking, or gardening. etc….
Step Four- Self Love Ritual
Yes, I know how that sounds, so do not roll your eyes , yet. This is what I do. It;s simple, and you might even laugh now. I give myself a hand / feet massage. It takes me about 20 minutes, where I unplug from social media, form radio, tv, etc… In total silence, I massage my hands and feet with oil or lotion. Once done, I treat myself to a spiky ball therapy. You can purchase them on ebay or in any sports store. I got mine from Aldi.
Step Five- Tackle your closet!
Yes, a clean self -love mind, starts with a clean organised closet. I am not the clean freak for sure, but I like my closet to be clean and organised so I can Organise and get rid off all the stuff that you do not need. Let go of it! It helps your closet and your mind. It will make you feel light and fresh. Shoes, Jewellery, clothes, etc… that reminds you of bad events or brings negative memories into your life, need to go!
I know we do not all have a Carry Bradshaw Closet, but we can make it all work with accessories and a good clean out! Make it work! You will see, how it will make you breath easy as soon as you are done!
I hope this helped you out that way it helps me to practice Self Love! How do you practice Self Love?
XO,
Lorena
All Images from Pinterest. Print image from the Etsy shop.
Have you ever asked yourself what attacks you to a colour? Me, always and every time it;s a different answer! Now I always liked Purple.
Not any kind of purple….. a dark deep, velvety purple…. and a touch of black….. I love purple and been always attracted to agate and amethyst. Purple Agate is one stone that I use on the regular in my designs. It calm the wearer, it hold on to good energy and creates a wonderful save environment for the one who wears it.
A reminder that I love Lavender, that I love creativity, luxury and royalty a colour that is a great representative for peace, dignity and mystery as well as magic, this is purple to me. It also represents the Crown Chakra ( head Chakra) it shows your connection to the universe and spiritual part in you. It;s your connection to creativity
How does purple make you feel? It makes me feel great. It makes me smile and creative. But how does black make you feel like?Elegant, classic, minimalist and timeless. This is how it makes me feel.
I also want to you check out the video below. Guo Pei a fantastic Haute Couture designer…. She is amazing. Almost all her designs remind me of Romanian Lace and this last collection was exceptional. The
Isn’t her style amazing? The inspiration of the dark ages architectural design is stunning. The structure is fantastic and is so detailed. We lace makers can easy get inspired and create stunning Romanian Point Lace.
Did a colour ever inspire you? If yes, comment below and let’s talk about!
It all started on a Thursday evening …. I wanted to dye some RPL pieces, and was not sure if I had all the right ingredients. The idea that I wanted to dye with natural items was logic to me from the start. From the beginning I was fixated on pink shades.
It’s Friday morning and once the little one went to take a nap it was time to start the dye process……
To dye doilies, lace, point lace is as old as time…. I am very much interested in natural dye and always experimented with it, from teas, to coffee dye…..
I had three white natural Romanian Point Lace doilies. You probably have seen them in one older post or on social media…
Here they are before, the dye adventure!
You do not need much for a natural dye. A few bowls, pots to bring it to a boil, and of course vinegar. I use the very cheap one dollar vinegar.
That’s about I guess and yes like with every dye, X fingers, that it comes out ok! LOL
Since I dye only 3 pieces to experiment with colours, I do not need much.
For the onion dye I used all the left over onion shells red and brown that we had left in the house. In this case it;s about 2 hands full. The more the better, but like I said it;s all left overs.
I used two hibiscus and one rose hip teabag to dye the second Romanian point lace doily. For the last doily I used two bags of Billy teabags. It;s Australian Bush tea. The colour is dark brown.
Step One!
I soaked all three doilies in cold water for at least 15 minutes.
Step Two!
After that I started to boil water and to get the pots ready.
You will need three posts and half a cup f vinegar in total. Add to each pot a bit of vinegar and let it boil. Make sure that the water is not over boiling. I add wooden spoons to each pot.
Step Three!
Bring it to a boil and make sure that the doily is deep in the hot water. Stir is a bit and also be careful when you turn it. It need to be in hot water and in the dye all the time. If edges of the doily is out, you will have a weak dye. Love how the dark red actually looks like.
The Billy Tea is fantastic , a gorgeous colour, very elegant
almost like cognac.It looks nice so far. I can imagine that it will turn way lighter of course. It’s never easy to say if you experiment and if you do it with Romanian Point Lace pieces. If you are not sure, I suggest to experiment with a simple Romanian Point Lace cord. Cut it in pieces and add into each colour. That way you will not loose or damage a doily if you need it later on. After all you were quite busy creating it. 🙂
Make sure that the stove is on medium to high but watch it all the time. While the doilies are wet, the dye looks darker, see images below. Once it;s dry they will lighten up!
Hibiscus, has a light colour once dry and a very soft smell. It will not smell once it;s dry. The onion dye is stronger in colour. The tea is quite faded but a good outcome. Soft, and delicate with a vintage touch!
Step four!
Once ready, you can hang them outside on the line to dry. But if you can’t wait, you can iron them dry. That way you are one step ahead and you do not need to block it, since you pressed them while wet.
E voila…. this is the result of this dye. Have you tried to dye your Romanian Point Lace? If yes, please let me know.
As you can see the hibiscus tea resulted into a very pale pink. It is gorgeous, but soft. If you would be interested in a deeper pink, you might need to add more hip rose tea bags, or avocado seeds and shells.
I enjoyed to dye all three, but I think I would be very interested to dive deeper into natural dye on the pink side. I hope you all had fun reading this blog post and please so share it, pin it, like it and comment!
I like the idea that I can do Romanian Point Lace in light or white colour, due to the fact that the fillings are easier to create on lighter thread. It also means that I have the freedom to experiment and change colours as much as I like by changing the dye. It’s easy if you look for a specific colour that you can;t find in the store.
Saturday I had another look at the result of pink and I was not really happy with it. Starring at it while eating blueberries gave me the idea to actually dye the same piece in blueberry.
Once finishing with making blueberry juice for Andrada, I used the left over and added vinegar. The doily was 30 minutes in the hot juice and this is the result….
The pink is darker, more into a purple note…. I love the result.
It does not matter where you go in Europe or at what historical period you have a look at, lace was and is a starting point. Lace was popular for both women and men. At the beginning lace was only for the high class, royalty, noble men and women…. The middle class was creating the lace collars, the lace appliques and so much more but yet were not allowed to wear it. Something we can;t even imagine these days… We live in a world of fast fashion where lace is a rarity of it;s made by hand, These days lace is made by machines… sadly I have to say that is something that drives me maddddddddddddddddddddd! What about you? If you create lace by hand, you know what I mean. The same goes for crochet, knit, etc….
To me if feels like we devalue us as people as a society that can do wonders with our hands , some with their feet and brain… If we let a machine take over and one day technology vanishes who can create all these magical intrigued designs? Certainly the new generations do not have a clue how to even hold a needle, a hook or even create a lace pattern… Don;t even get me started! LOL
The collar you see below is a traditional Romanian Point Lace Collar.
It has the traditional ecru thread and the traditional pattern
floral
vegetal
simple Romanian cord
traditional shape design ( V shape)
leaf motives with traditional filings
What actually happens to you, when you put a lace collar on, oh well you can actually transform your outfit into an elegant outfit , no effort at all! You are chic and elegant in 2018! You can adopt the Parisian look so easy just by wearing a lace collar.
This collar is a great example for a modern Romanian Point Lace, design. It has a touch of tradition, since it’s in ecru and follows a repetitive motive. The designer of this collar is Russian – I could not find out the name.
The white design above is made in two identical pieces. It is for a dress and the focus point is the shoulder line in front and back. It’s also traditional in pattern, design, shape and even colour. It;s white for the following reasons.
it is made for a young girl
a wedding piece
wedding dress
part of a dowry
christening
birth gift
Now the good part about how Romanian Point Lace collars are made is that we simply apply them to the blouse, attaching them only in certain points on the item to make it stay, but easy to be removed.
I created a collar that has all the aspects of traditional Romanian Point Lace – repetitive motive, geometrical design, flat lace, floral organic elements, but the colour is different. I was still using the traditional thread from Romanofir but the colour simply just spoke to me. I was thinking it might look amazing to be able to wear a lace collar on light clothes. Since almost all the lace pieces are done in light colours, this might be a way to keep lace still interesting.
If you want to hear more about this type of collar, check out the video below! You can see why type of hooks I used for it and how I broke it down.
Thank you
If you have any questions on the lace collars, please comment below! Also, tell me how you wear your lace collar!
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You do not need much for a natural dye. A few bowls, pots to bring it to a boil, and of course vinegar. I use the very cheap one dollar vinegar.
Saturday I had another look at the result of pink and I was not really happy with it. Starring at it while eating blueberries gave me the idea to actually dye the same piece in blueberry.
To me if feels like we devalue us as people as a society that can do wonders with our hands , some with their feet and brain… If we let a machine take over and one day technology vanishes who can create all these magical intrigued designs? Certainly the new generations do not have a clue how to even hold a needle, a hook or even create a lace pattern… Don;t even get me started! LOL 
This collar is a great example for a modern Romanian Point Lace, design. It has a touch of tradition, since it’s in ecru and follows a repetitive motive. The designer of this collar is Russian – I could not find out the name. 
