Sometimes, when you look back, you can point to a time when your world shifts and heads in another direction. In lace reading this is called the “still point.”

Brunonia Barry. The Lace Reader (2009) p.29

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The words above come from a recent novel where a particular make of lace plays a key role in the plot. (Historical murder and mayhem, inter-generational strife, an imaginative, fun, and occasionally overwrought romp.)

The first part of the quote felt timely in describing a turning point in the world, this March of 2026. The second part referred to something that sprung from the author’s imagination: descendants of the Salem witches divining the future from lace. So not a real thing – lace reading – that I naively assumed did exist. After all, people read tea leaves, crystal balls or cowry shells, why not lace? A “still point” seemed such an intuitive concept.

Our world is shifting and heading in another direction, though, isn’t it? So why do I turn to the topic of lace today, and not to other alternatives? I could think through how we should deal psychologically with our worries and fears, or how to seek community as to not face a crumbling world alone?

As you will see, lace, as introduced today, will speak to all of it.

Burratto Lace Grapevine Motif Italy 17th C

Lace is going to be at the center of this summer’s exhibition and activities at the Columbia Gorge museum. Executive Director Lou Palermo builds on the ideas and successes of previous projects for which she was instrumental during her time at Maryhill Museum. As I reported then, the Exquisite Gorge I and II programs collected the works of PNW printmakers and fabric artists, respectively. All of them celebrated aspects of the Columbia Gorge associated with a particular region. They were eventually displayed on the museum grounds in installations that preserved the geography of the river and its surrounds.

One of the most exciting part of these enterprises were the ways community was involved – community partners were called, and answered with extreme generosity, creativity, in-kind and financial support for all that was happening. Workshops involved library and schools, field trips allowed other artists to learn during master classes, people donated materials, opened their studios. From kids to grown-ups, participation was key – from learning to make prints, to how to weave, or do silk screenings; from studying natural dyes collected from native plants, bee keeping, to learning about Native-American symbols and history associated with the Columbia Gorge.

It was this aspect that Palermo and her great team at the Columbia Gorge Museum wanted to make central in this year’s adventure: lacing communities together. They are encouraging engagement with a heritage art form that will create samplers devoted to core aspects of the region, the trees and the salmon. Under the guidance of a remarkable contemporary lace artist, Maggie Hensel-Brown, everyone who is interested can learn and contribute, not just select artists. By the end of August, the museum will have collected regionally, nationally and internationally stitched lace samplers that will be arranged into beautiful installations reminding us of the value and beauty of the landscape surrounding us.

Czech Lace Emilie Palickova (Detail) mid-1900

Multiple organizations have already pledged their collaboration. From Skamania Lodge, multiple library districts, the History Museum of Hood River County, to several lace and fiber arts-oriented organizations, like the Columbia Fiber Guild, Portland Lace Society, Lacemakers of Puget Sound and not least, the Arts in Education of the Gorge, all will help this project along. Local libraries will even hand out kits with all the necessary materials for making a small lace triangle to contribute to the installation to those interested.

Flanders Lace (Detail) 1700 – 1750

Are you among the many currently grieving the dissolution of the social fabric? That will be counterbalanced by fabric, holes and all, that was produced by a diverse community united in the hope they could deliver a thing of beauty, or at least an attempt to get there – you should see my first needle stitches. Not to worry, Hensel-Brown absolutely encourages imperfection, as long as you have fun trying. Huge relief, if you ask me.

She also provides step-by-step instructions for those new to the art form, both on video and as PDFs. She explains how you can gather the simple materials needed, and what to be on the lookout for, or practice with care. Her instructions are easy to follow, which does not mean that the first steps into needle lacing are a breeze. The needle work requires serious attention. I consider that one of the best ways to distract yourself from other thoughts, mind you. I am grateful for any half hour these days when I am not thinking about what is going on in the world, and strict attention protects my thoughts from straying.

I also found that the repetitive motions, once you have learned the one simple stitch involved in it all, can be extremely meditative. The kind of meditation that stills you and silences the worries for a while in this world that has shifted to yet another war. Check it out – you might find yourself as a part of a community that is learning and connecting while celebrating nature. Just what so many of us currently need.

Here are all the instructions helping with the Community Lace-Along.

https://www.columbiagorgemuseum.org/lace-project

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Lace has had a complex history, influenced by diverse cultural backgrounds, and dependent on how it was created. Needle lace was started in the 15th century, made by women in Europe, popularized for the next 200 years. That lace is made entirely with a needle using a single thread on a temporary backing, wich is later removed. I love its name: Punto in Aria, stitches in the air. Angry at the world? Stab the air… a peaceful and productive way of letting off steam.

Lace can also be made with bobbins, a technique derived from braiding, developed pretty much in parallel to needle lace, using multiple threads. You can also create lace patterns with crocheting or knitting, but none as fine as the traditional techniques.

The art form and geographically refined patterns spread from Italy to Spain, France, Flanders and England. Lace makers fleeing religious conflicts often settled in other lace producing regions, interchanging patterns and techniques. Lace was a time-consuming art form, much prized as a status symbol for aristocrats or rich merchants. It certainly drew the attention of European painters of the Golden Age who left us with detailed examples of what their patrons wore. In fact, when I hear the word “lace,” it is these paintings that come to mind, long before thinking of fancy underwear, or bridal veils, or prayer mantillas, all commonly associated with the fabric.

Thomas Gainsborough Portrait of Mary Countess Howe (1760) Detail.

Eventually machines took over the jobs. The manual production knowledge might as well have died out with the professional lace makers after the industrial revolution, had it not been for artists who picked up on lace, and designers who saw its potential. Since the 1970s, there has been an explosion of interest in contemporary lace making, with societies founded to celebrate and educate about lace, museums established to preserve the history, and exhibitions devoted to many aspects of lace production, not least last year’s DesignBiennial in Venice.

How things are depicted changed with ever improved or altered techniques. What it is that was expressed in lace changed as well. Earlier simple geometric designs gave way to representations of nature. (The many gorgeous examples of trees shown on lace were of particular interest to Palermo, given the intended celebration of nature found in the Gorge.) Depictions of nature gave way to whole narratives, with human figures in cultural or political contexts, entire stories implied on small lace tableaus.

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Here are just two striking examples of contemporary perspectives – Maggie Hensel-Brown‘s work and that of Agnes Herczeg which I find equally thought-provoking.

Some three years ago, Hensel-Brown gathered community to create an incredibly beautiful accumulation of leaves that were then conjoined. Over 400 participants, some 700 leaves, instilling a sense of fragility and resilience at the same time.

Maggie Hensel-Brown Radiance (2023) (Detail below)

The artist’s individual work is characterized by story telling. She takes everyday scenes and infuses them with magic, via a pattern defined by negative space, all with a needle and a single thread. The portraits capture emotions, anchoring those universals in the specifics of our Covid- or Internet-driven times. Details abound, asking us to explore deeper and deeper into the fray.

Maggie Hensel-Brown Quarantine Self Portrait I (2020) (all images from her website)

Maggie Hensel-Brown Sheets (2022)

Maggie Hensel-Brown Not useful, not beautiful (2023)

Maggie Hensel-Brown January 24th (2024)

I cannot wait to see her work in person.

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Herczeg is a Hungarian artist who combines lace creations with branches and sticks she finds along the local beaches of the river Danube.

The juxtaposition of the airiness of the lace and the hardness of the wood creates a sculptural effect, with each medium competing for attention, yet emerging as an organic whole. I am particularly drawn to her hand coloring of the lace once the needle work is done. It provides additional depth to the configurations, further strengthening the sense of sculpture.

Agnes Herczeg: The resting place, 2019, 5 cm high, Needle lace with silk thread and thin wire contour combined with poplar branch, hand-painted

Agnes Herczeg: The tree, 2019, 9 cm high, Needle lace with silk and juta thread with thin wire contour, combined with beech bark, hand-painted. (Source)

We’ve come along way since the 14hundreds. It is glorious to think that the heritage is preserved and continues to be handed down to each next generation, with ever new twists and turns, not only of needles. Much to look forward to this summer, when the Columbia Gorge Museum will display lace variations and a renowned artist available on location.