the lace guild golden anniversary
golden cape project
by lizzie foulon
One of The Lace Guild’s projects to commemorate our Golden Anniversary is the Golden Anniversary Cape. Two hundred and fifty-five golden-themed lace motifs were crafted and sent in by one hundred and fifty-one members, from all levels of expertise across the lacemaking community.
While many entries were created by lacemakers in the UK, there were also contributions which had travelled the globe, sent in by lacemakers from Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, The Slovak Republic and the United States.
Helen Roberts very generously gave of her time to construct the cape, with the assistance of her friends Dana Demarino and Kathy Gale. The shimmering blue exterior is made from 5.5 metres of velvet,
and is lined with blue rayon. Motifs were produced in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and shades of gold.
When considering the overall balance of the garment it’s vital to consider all of these aspects together collectively, along with the ‘visual weight' of motifs. Initially the pieces were assessed and catalogued by these characteristics and then pinned (and potentially re-positioned several times over) in a position that supported symmetrical balance across each side of the front of the cape. Larger motifs were used to give impact, or to draw the eye to the centre line of the back of the cape, with smaller motifs being then used to fill in spaces around these larger embellishments.
Helen spent sixty-three hours sewing the motifs into position on the cape, having found that two people sewing together to speed up the process just didn't work well. Almost 300m of thread was used by
Helen just to sew the motifs down.
In Lace 204 we highlight some of the lacemakers who were involved in making their motifs for the cape. You will also be able to see the cape on display at The Christmas Lacemakers Fair this December.
Lace groups:
You have the opportunity to request to book the cape for your lace event. You will need to provide a mannequin or dress form to display it upon. You can book the cape for your own event by completing the booking form (click button below to download form). Once your dates have been approved you will be asked to sign our terms and conditions of loan. Please read these carefully to make sure you can meet our conditions before you finalise the booking.