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Vologda Region is to mark Lace Day on May 27.

26.05.2025 09:11

27 May is a holiday for Vologda’s lacemakers.

Vologda lace has won deserved fame and world-wide recognition for its high artistic value, rich ornament, and excellent workmanship. The earliest laces, which have reached us, date back to the 17th century. The lace woven from golden and silver threads decorated rich civilian and church garments and was mostly used by the nobility.

Vologda lace is a kind of Russian lace tatted with bobbins. Continuous smooth line, which never crosses and forms a pattern of Vologda lace, is a woven braid ('vilushka') over a thin openwork grid.

Vologda has always been one of the main centres of Russian lace tatting, and in the 19th century it became the most famous one. It was that time when lace-makers began to tat lace patterns in the form of wonderful stars and snowflakes.

In late 19th – early 20th century the Vologda Region boasted about 40 thousand women lace-makers, so every other Vologda woman made laces either professionally or for her own use.

At the beginning of the 20th century Vologda lace gained its distinctive artistic and stylistic features. The richness and variety of the decorative pattern, the clear-cut easy line of the design, monumentality of forms and predominance of floral motives distinguish traditional Vologda lace.

Photo: cultinfo.ru