A good friend of mine texted me a link to an article from Paraguay early this morning.
The article's title translates to "Paraguay is on the Altars in the Vatican".
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| photo credit: Gentileza, IP Paraguay |
This is exciting for 3 reasons. The first is that the lace altar
cloth was made by Paraguayan women from the handmade needle woven lace called
Ñandutí. Love this quote that Pope Francis had said in regards to the Paraguayan woman,
"In
my opinion, the Paraguayan woman is the most heroic in the Americas,”
he said. “After the war [The War of the Triple Alliance - 1864–1870 –
in which nearly half-a-million Paraguayans died], out of every ten
people , eight were women. And these women made the great decision to
have children… To save the country , the language, the culture and the
faith. I wish that one day the Nobel Prize Committee would give the
Nobel prize to the Paraguayan woman . To have saved her culture, her
country. It was heroic! I nominate her!"
Second is that it is from a design house in Paraguay called
Cecilia Fadul Altieri that
specializes in the lace. Her works are truly amazing. She designs wedding dresses to tablecloths made with this needle woven lace.
The thi
rd reason is that I
studied how to make the lace years ago from a lady from Itagua for several months back in 1998 . So obviously I hold a certain fascination with the lace's history, technique, design and evolution.
About four years ago, I gave a
presentation at the Institute of Hispanic Culture in Houston about nanduti and its significance in the culture of Paraguay.
Quoting textile historian Margy Norrish's blog
Unraveling Threads, "The Spanish brought their teneriffe lace and taught the locals. The teneriffe lace is a Spanish handcraft from the 17
th C for
household use and was professionally produced in a 19
thC revival.
In its simplest form these needle-woven circular patterns
are formed by foundation threads that radiate from the center like a wheel with
additional darning threads woven in different patterns around the circle. These circles or spider webs are then joined
together. "
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| Teneriffe lace |
In Paraguay the women took the technique of the Spanish and designed patterns inspired by nature. Below is a page taken from an incredible book about the lace. It had several pages of photographs of the different designs of the lace and their inspiration. For example the first one is inspired by jazmin.
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| from the book El Nanduti Trama Sutil Cautivante by Eliodora Ramos de Martinez and Maria Angela Fernandez de Navarro |
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Making a piece out of Ñandutí is truly a labor of love. It is certainly a dying art form as many young women are preferring to get an education and have a career and not learn from their mothers an art form that has been passed down many generations. To receive a tablecloth made from Ñandutí is to receive a little piece of those artisans' hearts.
Here is a video of an artisan filmed making Ñandutí
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| Monica and I in front of a framed Ñandutí tablecloth, Paraguay 1998 |
Cazador de Instantes has a great blog post about an artisan who makes Ñandutí which features some amazing photographs of her work.
