In yesterday’s post I mentioned Scanno, a town in Abruzzo, the region where I was born. Today I would like to continue the "personal blog" thread I launched yesterday rediscovering the tombolo. The Italian word “tombolo” is usually translated as “pillow lacemaking” and this term describes a type of lace, which is usually very delicate and elaborate, but it is also used to refer to the main tool on which the lace is made, a cylindrical pillow. The tombolo is an ancient form of art that was already well-known in the 14th century.
The main tools to make this type of lace are the pillow, a series of bobbins (their number varies, though the final number is usually even) with a groove at the top, a silk, cotton or linen thread and a print with a pattern to copy. The print with the pattern is pinned to the small cylindrical pillow which is usually lined with dark fabric and then work begins anchoring the threads around the bobbins on the pins and reproducing in this way with the lace the pattern on the print. In the most elaborate types of tombolo even 100 bobbins are used. Once completed the lace is freed from the pins and removed from the pillow and, according to its size, it can be incorporated into bed sheets, towels, curtains, tablecloths, dresses or bridal wear or used for other decorative purposes or to make small accessories. The lace is more or less precious according to the thickness of the thread employed.
The tombolo is widely made in Italy, but also in some parts of Europe, but the stitches used can be quite different. In my region and in particular in the city of L’Aquila and around it for example, the tombolo is extremely elaborate, and usually rather difficult to make. Though the main patterns usually represent floral motifs, these are usually rather intricate, laid on a background of the thinnest tulle-like lace. Different types of patterns lead to two main kinds of work: Renaissance lace and loose lace. The former is made with a few bobbins, it’s rather linear and it's used to create a compact and full lace; the latter requires a larger number of bobbins which continually intertwine amongst themselves and allow to create many empty spaces. Open a book about the Abruzzo region and you’ll easily find images of women sitting in the streets of small villages working on tombolo lace together with their neighbours or sitting in front of the fireplace, working away while the clashing of the bobbins fills the house.
To make sure that this ancient art wasn’t forgotten, eighteen years ago the Scuola per il Tombolo (School of Pillow Lacemaking) was founded in Pescocostanzo, in the province of L’Aquila. The school trains lacemakers teaching them all the steps of the tombolo, from the pattern making to the printing, the choice of textiles and the technical execution. There are also a craft museum and a market attached to the school in Pescocostanzo, where visitors can admire ancient laces from private collections and buy lace as well. If you happen to be in Italy and see a local antiquarian market (usually held throughout the year and not only during the Christmas holidays), try to spot stalls selling lace and you might be lucky enough to see some tombolo pieces on sale. Remember though that tombolo can be very expensive: being very difficult to make, tombolo can be as precious and expensive as gold. Remember also that the thinnest tombolo is actually the most expensive.
A while back my mum rediscovered in an old trunk at home some strips of tombolo lace. I think my aunt bought them many years ago from an embroiderer as she wanted to incorporate the tombolo in some bed sheets or tablecloths. The pieces of lace were rather long and they were still pinned to a special thin paper to prevent them from getting all ruined. Together with the longer strips, mum found also some smaller fan-like pieces of tombolo that were usually employed to decorate napkins. The embroiderer who made the tombolo lace mum discovered in our trunk seems to have used a combined technique of Renaissance and loose lace, as the lace features both compact and open parts. Mum explained me these tombolo pieces were very precious as they were bought from travelling embroiderers, women who made the tombolo lace and then travelled to other towns to sell it door to door. Being the lace very expensive, they would be paid in instalments and would go back to the family who had bought the lace every month to collect the next instalment of money.
As soon as I saw the smaller bits of tombolo I couldn’t resist finding a way to wear them though, so I got a couple of gold earring hooks, slipped them in the tiny holes of the tombolo net and transformed the bits of lace into earrings. The texture is very light and fragile and the earrings look absolutely stunning, especially if you wear them with a dark coat. I must admit I also feel like I'm wearing a bit of art, history and the traditions of my region on my ears. Indeed these very special earrings tell something about my roots, but they also tell the story of the anonymous embroiderer who made these little works of art that were purchased forty years ago by my aunt. I never thought I could have worn such an exciting and wonderful bit of history on my ears.
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Hi, know as bobbin lace in the Uk, not forgotten yet :-)
Posted by: Guzzisue | December 27, 2008 at 09:35 AM