Lydia Thiels-Mertens, Belgium     Saturday, 22 July, 2023     15:00 CET

Lacemaking – Intangible Heritage in the World

Lydia Thiels-Mertens has been active with lace since 1975 and is a founding member of OIDFA and an OIDFA past president.  In 1983 she established the Lace Center Diest Centre for Education in Lace Techniques.  In 1997 she became president of a new regional organization for lace and related techniques in Flanders.  Please visit the website at www.kantinvlaanderen.be.  She is editor of the Magazine Filum.

Carol McFadzean, UK                     Sunday, 23 July, 2023   16:30 CET

Historical Lace Research, Fun & Frustration!

Carol McFadzean’s love of history and the Woodbury Salterton Lace Find were the catalyst for her research journey. As an author of 3 books and 1 book commission for a local Museum, she has seen her research cover many aspects and develop into a speaker both nationally and internationally on a variety of lace topics.   Carol is past AC, EC, President, and Bylaws Committee Chair of OIDFA.  She teaches lacemaking, always wishing to try a newly discovered lace or something out of the ordinary.

Veronika Irvine, Canada Sunday, 23 July, 2023 16:30 CET

Kiss and Tell: a tool for exploring bobbin lace

While other kids were taking apart radios, Veronika Irvine spent her childhood taking apart doilies to learn their inner secrets.  Her interest in how textiles work led her to study bobbin lace from a mathematical perspective.  She developed a model of the basic rules for lace grounds and used it to discover millions of patterns.  Veronika now enjoys creating lace pieces using the patterns and insights learned from this research.

Annamaria Gatt and Claire Bonavia, Malta     Wednesday, 26 July, 2023  15:00 CET

Behind the Doors of Heritage Malta’s National Textiles Collection – Curation and Conservation of Maltese Lace

Annamaria Gatt is the Curator of Costumes and Textiles at the National Museum of Ethnography in Vittoriso which is housed in the Inquisitor’s Palace.  She is also a YouTube presenter for Heritage Malta in their series, “Treasure To Meet You.”

Claire Bonavia is the Principal Conservator of Textiles and Paper at the National Museum of Ethnography in Vittoriso, Malta.  She has also lectured on the conservation process.

Frieda Sorber, Belgium     26 July, 2023  Wednesday   16:30 CET

Lace in Antwerp, 1550 to 1913

Frieda Sorber was a lacemaker long before becoming an art historian/archeologist in 1976.   She started lace making after seeing an exhibition on the history of lace in Antwerp in 1967. From 1977 Frieda worked in the Sterckshof museum as the organizer of the exhibition and stayed on as a curator of textiles for the collection that ended up in the Fashion Museum in Antwerp.  She has worked on numerous exhibitions and lectured on lace and other textile subjects in Europe and the United States. Her almost lifelong interest in lace culminated in the exhibition and publication “P.Lace.s” in Antwerp in 2021. She is currently working on the very early history of bobbin lace. 

Vicki Taylor, Australia     Wednesday, 16 August, 2023     15:00 CET

Living Art Lace

Vicki Taylor is a passionate lace maker, using needle and bobbin lace techniques.  She creatively utilizes her traditional lace making techniques to design and exhibit contemporary art lace.  Vicky worked with lace groups around Australia to create lace for exhibition in Temse, Belgium.  She also teaches her newly learned skills to students local and further afield.

Marketta Palo and Tanja Aarnio, Finland
Saturday, 19 August, 2023 15:00 CET

Pitsi-Pirtti/Lace Cottage – Exhibition of the Bobbin Lace Designs of Eeva-Liisa Kortelahti  

Marketta Palo has a masters in Education and a bachelors in Occupational Therapy.  She has been making lace since 1980 and studied lace in Belgium.  Her special areas of interest are Finnish lace caps from the end of 18th century and laces with double ground.

Tanja Aarnio has a degree in Crafts and has been a lacemaker since 2015.

Neus Ribas San Emeterio, Director Arenys de Mar Lace Museum, Spain  

Sunday, 20 August, 2023 15:00 CET

Lace with Woman’s Voice

Neus Ribas San Emeterio has degrees in history and geography from the University of Barcelona. She became the director of Arenys de Mar Museum in 2022, a museum with two sections: Lace museum and mineralogic museum. Her academic articles about lace, the women work and Carmen Tórtola Valencia are published in magazines, conferences and congresses. As curator she organized the exhibitions: “Dresses for the Occasion” and “Carmen Tórtola Valencia, passion for collecting.”

Martina Wolter-Kampmann, Germany

Sunday, 20 August, 2023 16:30 CET

Old Flemish Laces – The Cradle of all Important Lace from Flanders

Martina Wolter-Kampmann has studied textile design, concentrating on history, technique and the science of bobbin lace.  She has studied lace at the various lace centers throughout Europe, the different working methods and genres to learn their differences and similarities. She is a former head of the working group history of the Deutsche Klöppelverband e.V. Martina is a Kant-Centrum certified bobbin lace teacher and has taught bobbin lace through correspondence schools, in person, and virtually.