Published: October 10, 2008 01:38 pm            

Librarian sews up lace apprenticeship in Slovenia

By TOM LAVIS

TLAVIS@TRIBDEM.COM

Allie Marguccio of East Wheatfield Township is bent on preserving an old-world traditional art form.

Marguccio was awarded a nearly $4,000 apprenticeship through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts to attend workshops in Slovenia.

Her specialty is Idrija lace, a heritage of the small mining town in westcentral Slovenia for which it is named.

Marguccio, an elementary librarian in the United School District, Armagh, and her husband, Tom, traveled to Idrija in June.

Before starting her apprenticeship, Marguccio and her husband attended a three-day festival that showcased the art form.

The principal exhibit was titled “Shoes With Idrija Lace/Modernity, Hooked into Tradition,” featuring the craftsmanship of Alja Novak, a shoemaker.

Novak’s handcrafted shoes were adorned with Idrija lace and had been part of a traveling exhibition that had toured the world.

“Many of her shoes had been purchased by celebrities, among them American movie star Ben Affleck,” Marguccio said.

“I also had an opportunity to meet a former director of the lace school who had been instrumental in gathering the traditional lace supplies that were sent to me when I first began to make lace.”

While in Slovenia, Marguccio worked with master teachers Metka Fortuna and Stana Frelih, who developed a personalized curriculum of intermediate lace study specifically for her.

“I have been making Idrija lace for many years, so the goal of this apprenticeship was to tweak my skills and to learn how to properly use the traditional bolster pillow,” she said.

“In this study, I worked on the Idrija narrow tape lace using the traditional pillow, bobbins and thread.”

The apprenticeship offered many challenges in mastering the techniques as well as instructions in some new skills and ways of tensioning.

The trip had additional significance for Marguccio because Idrija is near the town of Cerkno, the birthplace of her grandmother and the home of Frelih, who was her primary instructor.

Frelih is employed by the Idrija Lace School but lives in Cerkno and teaches lace making at the primary school there.

Frelih’s students begin their studies by learning basic bobbin winding. They use an electric winder to wind each bobbin.

“They start by making a long tape of cloth stitch,” Marguccio said. “Tensioning is one of the most important aspects of their early learning, because its importance cannot be overemphasized.”

Marguccio’s apprenticeship began with a review of the color coding system, a method with which she was familiar but had not mastered.

She proceeded to practice with a variety of corners and turns, mastery of the braided flower with picots and little holes in the center (a typical flower seen in Idrija narrow tape lace), the twisted tape, understanding various pattern markings and starting and finishing.

“One of the most challenging things for me was learning to plait while holding the bobbins in the palms of my hands and then tensioning using both arms,” she said. “It is much easier to do on a cookie pillow.

In 2000, Marguccio began her quest to devote more time to her craft. She started taking lessons every Saturday from Diana Danko of New Stanton, Westmoreland County.

“I was so excited about what I was learning that I shared my accomplishments and pictures of my work with my two cousins in Slovenia,” Marguccio said.

One of the biggest challenges she faced during the beginning process was trying to find someone who could instruct her in the use of the traditional pillow (punjkl).

“The lace pillow I was learning on was the traditional Belgian cookie pillow, which is flat,” she said. “In bobbin lace, the bobbins are crossed and twisted, weaving the threads through each other to make the design.”

In using the Slovenian punjkl, a tubular bolster pillow, the bobbins are held in the palms of the hands and passed through the fingers in order to cross and twist the threads.

Marguccio began teaching Slovenian bobbin lace for beginners at the Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center in Cambria City three years ago as part of UPJ’s Outreach Program.

The apprenticeship and her certification has helped attain the goals she wanted to accomplish: To learn proper technique in the use of the pillow and to use the method to work traditional patterns at the intermediate level.

“By gaining this knowledge, I can expand my own teaching to a level beyond beginners,” she said.

        

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