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What Is VeniseLace and How Is It Made?

What Is VeniseLace and How Is It Made?

Veniselace or Point de Veniseis a beautiful needle lace, first made in Italy and its history goes back to the 17th century. In the fashion industry, it can be the most stunning piece of addition for a wedding gown and theatrical dance costumes. Venice lace,is a lace that is stitched into the dissolvable fabricduring the creation;however, this fabric is removed to reveal a raised embroidered design. These laces are traditionally made in Burano Island near Venice, Italy.

 

VeniseLace andBurano Island

Back inthe early 15th century, a Venetian sailor wanted to get his fiancée something that can remind her of his stupendous voyages. Since he was poor to buy a conventional gift, he plucked a ruffled sea plant name “Halimedaopuntia” from Greece and brings it with him to BuranoIslandnear the Venice lagoon. His beloved was charmed but still worried thinking that the souvenir would soon be spoiled. So,she decided to create something that would last long just like their love. Thereafter, she used the white thread to design intricate patterns and replicated the fragile whorls.

 

All of her hard work resulted in the mermaid lace and that helped in the creation of Burano’s lace-making industry. Venetian or Burano lace is the symbol of the ultimate luxury. These geometric pattern laces continue to be the ornament for linen until the 18th century. In the 18th century,Venetian lace fell out of demand because it has to compete with other cheap products and trends.

 

However, in the 19thcentury, Italian intellectuals, politicians, and influential aristocratic ladies worked to uplift Venetian craftsmanship. They campaigned for its recognition and the efforts reawakened production in Burano. Since then, the Venetian lace production in Burano is cherished as a traditional artform rather than a commercial trade product.

 

How VeniseLace is made

Venetian lace is made using needles and requires months of eye-straining labor. The early designs are made separately and linked together by a narrow band. These were used in ruff collars in the 16th and 17th centuries. The patterns are created by outlining the designs with a cordonnet, horsehair, or bundle of thread.

Along with the colorful houses of Burano, it is famous for the amazing Venetian lacework. Visitors come here and visit the lace shops which are thriving for generations. The lace-makers create these beautiful laces using the same historical methods. Despite the fact that many of the laces are created with machines now, the handmade items are still made by the islands’ female residents.

If you spend some time in Burano, you can easily spot them seated in a shop front or the doorway crafting these ultimate pieces of art. These women are passionate about the craft and preserving the local heritage. Most of these women learned this trade from mothers or grandmothers or at the famous “Scuola di Merletti” lace-making school established in 1872.

Sometimes, many women work on a single piece because of the diversity in precision. Every woman is specialized in a different technique that is required to complete a more complex piece.

Laces were considered as the substitute for embroidery that gives the user freedom of getting rid of it whenever it’d get out of fashion. But now it has become a tradition!