Workshop Teachers
Linda Kay Benning
Linda Kay Benning has been on a fiber journey her entire life exploring work done primarily by women. She believes their fiber work enriched their lives with color and beauty. Often their skills provided supplementary income for the family, regardless of which continent they resided on. “I am an inch deep and a mile wide in the realm of fiber arts, focusing primarily on the heritage skills,” she recently explained. “My understanding and appreciation grows every time I try something new, often laughing when I examine my first attempt.” She is an active member of the EGA, Chesapeake Region Lace Guild, the International Organization of Lace, Inc., the Bobbin and Needle Lace Organization, and Smocking Arts of America.
Claire Bonito
Claire Bonito has almost 30 years of experience in making and designing lace, learning her craft from Pat Read MBE and later from Jacquie Tinch in the UK. She has been teaching regularly for over 15 years. She teaches a range of laces but specializes in Modern Milanese and has become well known for her contemporary designs using both Milanese and Withof lace techniques.
Claire teaches in a range of settings across the UK. She is talented both as a lacemaker and designer, and is a very good communicator with all levels of lacemaking. Her students say that she has an easy manner and friendly nature; her classes are popular with both new and continuing students alike. Claire was awarded both the Individual’s and the Visitor’s Choice Trophies in the Lace Guild’s “Contrasts” Exhibition, and was awarded a Medal for Excellence for her “Waterlily Mat” in the “Movement” exhibition.
Joan Brash
Joan Brash has been making bobbin, needle, tatted and other laces for about 40 years. She is a founding member of the 33-year-old Heritage Village Lace Guild in Western New York, and is an eternal board member and lace day chairman. She has recently specialized in Sol laces, combining classic features of Teneriffe and nanduti into contemporary designs.
Özden Dora Clow
www.Ozdendora.com; insta: @ozdendora
Ozden Dora CLow is a textile artist and works with a variety of media, with Oya needle lace at the forefront. She studied music at the University of Strasbourg before gaining an HNC in millinery at Kensington and Chelsea College, London in 2009. Her textile work has been exhibited extensively in France and elsewhere, and she also works on commission. Ozden Dora is absolutely passionate about teaching Oya and organises Oya demonstrations for the general public and textile students alike. She teaches textile art as well at the Universite Populaire Europeenne in Strasbourg, France.
Louise Colgan
Louise Colgan is a lacemaker, designer, and teacher with experience in a broad range of Bobbin Lace techniques. She began making lace in 1985 and has been teaching for over 30 years. She has served on the Board of the International Organization of Lace, Inc. as President, 1st & 2nd Vice-Presidents, Southwest Regional Director, and Grants Committee Chair. She is currently Chair of the Proficiency Program Committee and has been awarded an Honorary Membership. Louise has taught Bobbin Lace classes at many I.O.L.I. Conventions, plus workshops for U.S. members of O.I.D.F.A. and a wide variety of regional guilds. She was invited to teach classes at the Australian Lace Guild’s National Conference in 2012 and for New Zealand’s Bridge Lace Group in 2019. In her capacity as a lacemaker and designer, Louise has exhibited her work both locally and internationally. She was also a participant in the renowned International Poppy Project. Her designs have been included in the LACE EXPRESS magazine and the I.O.L.I. BULLETIN. Additionally, she has published three books of original patterns and has made an instructional video on Milanese Lace through Hensel Productions.
Elizabeth Horta Correa
Elizabeth Correa has been engaged with Sol laces for almost 20 years as lacemaker, teacher and researcher. She began in 2004-05 to collect Teneriffe and nhanduti lace in her region of Brazil, but to learn about the technique, its history and its incidence in the world she traveled through Paraguay, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia. Her research continued in the Canary Islands and Spain, the cradle of Sol Laces. Sol lace, the family of needle lace that is woven over a radial warp, is being forgotten, so each time she discovered something she shared it on the internet. Elizabeth’s Nhanduti de Atibaia blogs have become a major reference on these laces. On the 2020 June Solstice, Elizabeth organized a virtual meeting of over 40 Sol lace makers from 13 different countries.
Sylvia Fellows
Sylvia is currently the Program Chairman for the Hedgehogs and the Freeway Lace Guilds. She also holds a seat on the I.O.L.I. Education Committee. Sylvia is currently finishing a book of Chrysanthemum patterns. Before retiring, she was an elementary music teacher.
Nora Finnegan
Nora Finnegan is a graduate of The Crawford School of Art Cork and NCAD Dublin. Lacemaking became her passion when she learned to make lace from The Poor Clare nuns in Kenmare more than 30 years ago and became instrumental in reviving the art of Kenmare Lace.
Nora has taught and demonstrated lacemaking extensively all over Ireland, from Belfast to Dublin, to Cork and Kerry and is the author of “Kenmare and other Irish Laces.” She has taught workshops with the Guild of Irish Lacemakers and has worked with the DCCI on the schools CRAFTed program. She has also been involved with the hugely successful Kenmare Lace Festivals, serving as chairperson in 2015, and running workshops, talks and demonstrations at The Kenmare Lace and Design Centre for many years. Nora’s publication “The Lace Story: Kenmare and other Irish Laces” gives a long anticipated overview of the development of Irish Lace.
Pierre Fouché
Pierre’s art was included in the Hunterdon Art Museum’s recent groundbreaking exhibition Lace, not Lace: Contemporary Fiber Art from Lacemaking Techniques. Pierre’s production spans a number of distinctive media and approaches, including traditional craft techniques, recontextualised found objects, performances and interventions. In 2007, he was awarded one of South Africa’s most prestigious art prizes: the Absa L’Atelier award. He is represented by Whatiftheworld gallery in Cape Town, South Africa, where he lives.
Elena González
https://www.encajedebolillosmadrid.com/ (Spanish)
https://www-encajedebolillosmadrid-com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp (English translation)
Elena González has been making lace for over 20 years including many European laces and the Spanish techniques of Almagro lace, blonde of Almagro and Ret-fi. She started her own school in Madrid in 2012. Due to the pandemic she began to teach classes online.
Carol James
Carol James has been exploring sprang for more than 25 years, examining items in collections across North American and Europe, and making replicas. She has developed a pattern-writing system to accommodate the variety of designs encountered in her sprang explorations. She is the author of numerous articles, two DVDs and four books: Fingerweaving Untangled, Sprang Unsprung and two books of Sprang Lace Patterns. Carol is spending her Covid lockdown time reviewing her collection of sprang lace images and writing patterns and instruction sheets in order to make the technique accessible to others.
Loretta Holzberger
Loretta has been doing some form of needlework since she was a small child. Sewing, embroidery, crochet and knitting were all learned at an early age. Needle lace came much later, in the 1970’s. She has been teaching needlework since the 1970’s too, at her needlework guild, a shop, and later at her lacemakers guild. Loretta enjoys opportunities to share what she has learned with others.
Veronika Irvine
Veronika has a PhD in computer science and has been a bobbin lacemaker since 1995. Taking inspiration from abstract expressionism and the color field movement, she is interested in elevating ground and filling patterns from their supporting role and exploring them in depth. In her academic research, she uses modern mathematics, such as braid theory, group theory and graph theory, to model bobbin lace grounds. Using this model Veronika has proved that there are an infinite number of bobbin lace grounds and has developed algorithms to generate millions of grounds in the Torchon style.
Michèle Kelly
Michèle has taught a wide variety of handwork techniques, including bobbin lace, for over twenty years. Michèle is local to our area and hosts a social “bring in what you are working on” event each Thursday at the museum from 11am-1pm every week. Most recently, she has begun teaching beginning bobbin lace online weekly since we can not have students in our physical location. Michèle has been teaching traditional and modern bobbin lace to both adults and children since 1994, with an ever increasing interest in experimentation with stitches and fibers.
Theresa Kelly
Having grown up with threads and discovering Carrickmacross Lace in the 1980’s Theresa Kelly carries on a tradition of lace making that evolved in the Carrickmacross area in the 1800s. Pushing the boundaries of the technique, Theresa has explored many new possibilities, creating her own distinctive style and ensuring she is one of the most influential lacemakers in Ireland. Theresa has participated in many solo and group exhibitions and craft competitions throughout the world. Her work has been exhibited at the OIDFA International Lace Festival in Finland where she won the Sally Johanson Award. She has won the Muriel Gahan Award for Lace Innovation at the RDS Crafts Competition in Dublin.
Elizabeth Kurella
lacemerchant.com and LaceCurator.info
Elizabeth Kurella has studied the history, identification, and evaluation of lace throughout Europe and the US. for over forty years, and has evaluated and identified lace collections for several museums as well as private collections. She has studied bobbin and needle lacemaking in the US and in Europe. She is the author of Guide to Lace and Linens, The Secrets of Real Lace, Anybody Can Mend Lace and Linens, as well as assorted other books and articles on antique lace.
Jean Leader
Jean has been teaching lacemaking for over twenty years — weekly classes in Glasgow, Scotland where she lives and weekend and longer courses further afield. She has taught for lace groups and The Lace Guild in Britain, and for lace groups and at IOLI conventions in the USA. Bedfordshire, Bucks Point, and Torchon are her main interests and she has written several books including ‘An Introduction to Bucks Point Lace’ and ‘An Introduction to Bedfordshire Lace’, and made videos on ‘Color in Torchon’, ‘Intermediate Skills in Bucks Point Lace’ and ‘Color in Bedfordshire Lace’.
Allie Marguccio
Allie Marguccio is a retired elementary school librarian, lacemaker, and lace teacher. She has recently begun designing her own lace patterns in the Idrija lace narrow tape technique. She was awarded a grant by the Pennsylvania Counsel on the Arts to study traditional lace making techniques in Slovenia under the tutelage of Master Teacher, Stana Frelih of the Idrija Lace School in Idrija, Slovenia. Allie teaches private classes in her home in West-Central Pennsylvania and has taught numerous workshops regionally and throughout the United States. Her work has been exhibited at The Bottles Works Ethnic Arts Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and at the Governor’s Mansion in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She has contributed articles to IOLI’s Lace Bulletin and has been featured in several local newspapers. Allie is one of four folk artists featured in the 2018 PBS documentary titled, “Pennsylvania Traditions: Woven Together.” Her video, “The Basics of Idrija Lace Technique,” filmed and produced by John and Kathy Hensel, was launched in October of 2020.
Anna McDowell
Textiles and social history are two of my main interests, and it was during my twenty years working in the museum industry that I discovered Dorset buttons. I am now in the lucky position of being able to combine both my love of textiles with the inspiration from this heritage craft, once a major cottage industry in Dorset. I have researched the history of this industry, including visits to museums to examine original Dorset Buttons in their collections. I now use the original methods to work my buttons using contemporary materials and vintage and ethically sourced yarns. I also try out new designs and ways to use the skills of the original buttoners who made these buttons for their livelihood over 200 year ago. Over the years, I have been lucky enough to work on commissions including film, stage and contemporary fashion and have received awards for my buttons. My most treasured award is the Dorset Shield for traditional Dorset Crafts, and I enjoyed making buttons for Carey Mulligan’s costumes in the film Far from the Madding Crowd.
Victoria Ong
Victoria Ong is an emerging fiber artist from Chicago, IL, who is known for teaching and writing about Turkish needle lace flowers. She has published three books, “Flowers in Threads: Needle Lace for Beginners,” “Intermediate and Advanced Patterns for Needle Lace” and “Needle Lace Edgings.” These books, additional patterns, and supplies are available on her website.
Josée Poupart
Josée Poupart is French Canadian, fluent in both French and English. She received diplomas in biology and interior design. Her interests cover a wide range, including women’s handiwork, photography, and travel. She started learning bobbin lace in 1990, following a trip to Bruges. Back home, she made her first pillow and bobbins, and religiously followed every exercise from the Kantcentrum’s “Technique of Bobbin Lace.” With time, she became passionate for the unique texture leaves and tallies bring to lace. Her teaching career started informally with the Ottawa Guild of Lacemakers. She feels privileged being able to share her passion, and techniques collected over the years.
Elizabeth Peterson
Elizabeth Peterson started making lace in 1985 and teaching in 1995. She teaches weekly, and some of the laces include Torchon, Beds, Bucks, Brugge, Russian, Flanders and Binche. She has expansive experience with numerous laces but has studied Bedfordshire extensively with Christine Springett for several years. She has won several awards for her lace at the local, state and international levels.
Natalie Rogers
tatyourownadventure.wordpress.com
I was introduced to tatting in 2012, and since I have enjoyed crafts my whole life, I was quick to pick up the basics of tatting. I started teaching friends and family to tat within a few months of picking up my first shuttle, because the easiest way for me to know that I have learned a new skill is to teach it. My first designs happened by accident as variations on patterns I was completing. Since those first few happy accidents I have enjoyed purposefully designing many tatted pieces. I actively participate in Shuttlebirds Tatting Guild of Spokane, Washington and have had the honor of teaching at the Shuttlebirds Workshops from 2014 through 2019. I also had the privilege of teaching at the 66th Annual IOLI Convention. I run tatyourownadventure.wordpress.com, which features tatting playing cards for guided free-form tatting.
Karen Smock
Karen Smock was born with a love of textile arts, which was fostered by both grandmothers, who were amazing fiber artists. She started bobbin lace 10 years ago, after seeing it at a reenactment, and she started button making in 2015 while making reenacting clothes for her family. Karen specializes in historical needlework and enjoys passing on her knowledge to help keep the heritage crafts alive. Every summer, you can find her at French and Indian War reenactments teaching about lace and button history.
Máire Treanor
Máire Treanor was born and educated in Armagh in the North of Ireland, completing a degree in Irish Studies at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. She came to Clones in 1988 and fell in love with its local crochet lace, which was at this time part of the rich past of Clones. She revived and has taught the technique of Clones lace in Ireland, Brittany France, and many parts of the United States since the 1990s. She has also researched how Irish Crochet travelled to many parts of the World including Umbria Italy, Kiev Ukraine and Budapest Hungary. Máire has written a book on Clones Lace Mercier 2002, Lacis 2010 and a dvd in 2012. She is a regular contributor to Piecework Magazine.
Karen Thompson
Karen learned to do many types of handcrafts from an early age while growing up in Denmark. Bobbin lace was added in 1974 when she learned the basics from her mother, including how to draft patterns. Since then she has studied bobbin lace in the US and abroad. She has taught at IOLI Conventions and for local guilds, as well as being actively involved in several lace guilds in the US and internationally. In 2017 she published a book on The Lace Samples from Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1789-1790. A 12-Hour Introduction to Bobbin Lace booklet was added in 2020 in collaboration with Kim Davis and Linda Kay Benning.
Holly Van Sciver
Holly has been a student and teacher of lacemaking for over 47 years. Originally trained in England, she teaches a wide variety of bobbin laces, but specializes in 19th century English laces. Her most recent work features Lester and Floral Bucks designs as well as interpretive lacemaking of non-traditional designs. She has taught and lectured in the United States, Canada and Europe for the International Old Lacers, regional lace guilds, national lace conferences, museums, historical societies, universities and professional organizations. Holly is a leader in teaching the fundamentals underlying lacemaking theory and design. She is the founder of the Finger Lakes Lace Guild and owner of Van Sciver Bobbin Lace, which has served to promote lacemaking worldwide since 1981.
Martina Wolter-Kampmann
Martina Wolter-Kampmann studied textile design for the teaching profession in Dortmund Germany and then trained as a lace teacher in Belgium at the Kantcentrum. Her preferences are the classic Flemish fine laces but also contemporary, sophisticated solutions for beginnings and finishes, jewelry and all tricky problems on the bobbin lace pillow. She looks back on over 33 years of professional experience.
Louise West
Louise is based in Derby, UK and she designs, makes and teaches bobbin lacemaking, both at home and internationally. She specializes in the English laces of Bedfordshire and Bucks Point, but is always learning other laces for her own enjoyment. Her aim in life is to infect everyone with the passion and enthusiasm for bobbin lace and to pass on her knowledge to keep lace alive for the future.