LACIS – Lace Museum
At the University of Fashion, we will demystify the fine art of working with lace by taking you on location of the amazing Lacis Museum in Berkeley, California. On this exclusive tour, Museum Director Erin Algeo will show and describe how various types of hand-made lace is produced. You’ll learn the various tools of the trade and learn how to differentiate between Chantilly, Battenberg, Cluny, and a multitude of other lace types.
Hi, my name is Erin Algeo. I’m the manager and curator here at the LACIS Museum of Lace and Textiles. LACIS was opened in 1965 as Some Place by Jules and Kaethe Kliot. The shop was Kaethe’s world. Kaethe repaired lace, she taught people techniques, and sold fabulous needlework tools, and I think had a huge influence on the explosion of handwork in the United States at that time. I still have people coming in raving about how she promoted techniques that were dying, and that weren’t seen, and how she got people to look at them, and admire, and want to do them again. She had a lot of influence, and we remember her for that.
Before you sell or give away your lace and linens, I recommend that you know what they are and do a little research. So, I recommend this book, Guide to Lace and Linens by Elizabeth Mm. Kurella. You might have something handmade. Maybe you can find out if someone in your family made it. There’s just so many mysteries in the lace that you have. I urge you to get to know what it is, and you’re welcome to bring it in and show me. I look at lace all the time. I love to do it, and if I don’t know what it is, we can go through books, we can try to hunt down to get an answer for you. In addition to the books on needlework that we sell, the needlework tools that we sell, and the lace, linens, and everything else we have here that we sell, we also have an amazing variety of classes that we do, everything from corsetry, to Tambour work, and we would love to have you come and take a class. You can find us on lacis.com or lacismuseum.org. Thank you.