Never heard of Romanian point lace? Me, too. Romanian point lace is a traditional European craft which involves handbasting crochet cord into designs and filling the gaps with needle lace work. It is also called macrame lace, Hungarian point, Romanian macrame or crochet or European macrame. It is typically used for home decor projects like table linens or borders for curtains, even clothing and so on.
See this Pinterest board for some awesome examples.
But Lorena Balea-Raitz (
Green Window to the Soul on Etsy), a Romanian German now living in Brisbane, Australia has adapted the craft into bold statement jewelry designs. She has used the technique in a highly creative way and sometimes incorporates gemstones and beads into her one of a kind work.
Lorena says,
"Romanian point lace is known as the true lace and was developed Romania. It is a mixture of lace making, crochet, sewing, needle point and weaving. It is well known in Eastern Europe. Each country has its own designs and motifs in the lace making." She adds,
"The process of creating a Romanian Point Lace jewelry (piece) is time consuming and fun. One necklace can take up to a week or more depending on the design." As she is half-Romanian, she learned this ancient technique growing up from her great-grandmothers, grandmothers and mother. She explains why she loves it so much,
"It connects me to my roots and helps me focus. It brings me back to real handmade." This highly creative and talented artist is able to come up with some pretty innovative ways to take advantage of this openwork technique. She needed
"To transform it and truly make it my own - a signutre in the lace-making world. So I developed a new purpose for Romanian Point Lace - fashion accessories. Let old and new weave into each other and create wearable art." She definitely proves traditional crafts can be relevant for today`s designers. Just takes an open mind to welcome all sorts of possibilities.
Lorena is also an accomplished artist. For more of her work,
check out her website and
her Facebook page.
Wendy Harbaugh has a
video tutorial for the basic Romanian Point Lace cord if you`d like to see how it is done.
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