Yesterday Lisa, visiting from Canada, and I visited the Love Lace exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum here in Sydney. I had SUCH a wonderful time.
The first thing was that Lisa is a lovely girl, and I really enjoyed talking with her, sharing our similar loves of needlework, and expressing our horror of the same sorts of needlework disasters. I think we could both probably be described as needlework snobs! It was great to get to know Lisa better.
And the exhibition itself was really interesting. Parts of it were fascinating and inspiring, and parts of it were just plain weird! If you’re expecting the exhibition to just be pieces of lace, then you’ll be disappointed. (Though you can find that at the Powerhouse Museum in their excellent Lace Study Room.)
The first piece I saw from the exhibition was the Lacie Lorrie, an old rusty truck, with cutouts all over its chassis, creating a lacy effect. It was amazing, and really gave a taste for how unusual parts of the exhibition were going to be! The one that repulsed us the most was some bodily organs knitted out of human hair…
Amongst the weirdness though, there were some absolutely exquisite creations. Ones that come to mind were a set of lacy porcelain bowls, some felted dresses, a gorgeous white dress with hand-embroidered appliques from India, some beautiful Christening gowns from Canada, and some amazing jewellery. I LOVED the cyclone wire fencing panels with wire bobbin lace motifs worked into them. They were the last exhibit in the show, and they were simply amazing!
It is NOT a traditional lace exhibition, but it IS incredibly inspiring. DO go and see it if you have the chance. (You should have come with us!)
Thanks, Lisa, for suggesting we get together when you visited Sydney, and thanks for a lovely day!
Added later: links to images of each of the mentioned exhibits.
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
It sounds like a fascinating exhibition. Is it likely to tour to the UK?
I’m sorry Rachel, I have no idea. But the exhibition does have is own “app”, which you can download. Its a bit like a brief catalogue, with pictures, I think. I don’t have it, but Lisa did. You can find it on the Love Lace page on the museum’s website.
Rachel, I’ve just added in links to photos of each of the exhibits mentioned. The website information is really quite extensive. Its not the same as actually seeing the works in real life, but may at least give you a taste for the exhibition. I’d say the stuff on the website is the same as what’s included in the app, probably negating the need for the app. 🙂