Clones Lace Workshops

International Quilters Festival
Galway Ireland
June 8-10 2012

www.iqfoi.com

I will have 2 workshops at this festival.

Mulranny, Co Mayo

A beautiful venue on the rugged west coast of Ireland,

set in the Mayo Gaeltacht (Irish Speaking area)

Irish Crochet workshop

April 13-14 2013

www.eomworkshops.com

Irish Crochet/Clones lace masks

Over the next few weeks I would like to post some photographs of masks which I have designed and crocheted. I would  also like to post masks that other people have designed and crocheted, inspired by my Clones -Burano Mask, which first appeared in Interweave Crochet in Summer 2011.

This mask was inspired by masks that I saw when I visited Venice and Burano Island in August 2009, with my sister Aoibheann. If you would like to make your own mask, Crochet Traditions will publish a pattern on this mask in their summer 2012 edition.

I gave a mask to my eldest daughter, Mairead  as a graduation present in October 2011! As you can see, she loved it! I started making Clones Lace when she was a new baby!

This is my Clones Masquerade Mask.

My youngest daughter, Cait is the model.

Twenty years ago, she was the model for her christening robe! I will putting up a pattern for this masquerade mask soon. If you start it now, you might have it ready for Halloween or new year! I can’t make a pattern for the Clones -Burano mask, for copyright reasons, yet – but I will in the future, when the copyright runs out!

Cáit at 5 weeks old!

If anyone else has some masks, inspired by mine, why not let me know, and we can post them.  I have seen some great ones, but I need your permission and help to upload them for everyone to see!

more to follow…

Travelling with Clones Lace and Irish Crochet

My love of Clones Lace and Irish Crochet has taken me to wonderful places such as:

Seattle, WA

California

Penmarch’ Bretagne La France

Lacis, Berkeley

Venice and Burano Island

Kyiv, Ukraine

Minneapolis and St Paul

Mulraney, County Mayo, Ireland

An Cultúrlann, Beal Féirste

The Sheelin Museum, Bellinaleck County Fermanagh………more to follow + pics

About me – Máire Treanor

I first became interested in Clones Lace in 1987, when I met Mamo McDonald, who introduced me to Clones Lace, the forgotten lace of the town. On a beautiful spring day, Mamo brought me to visit some of the older crocheters who still crocheted Irish Crochet squares and edged hankies. Up among the hills of Fermanagh, about 5 minutes drive from Clones, we walked into Eileen Crudden’s kitchen. She was sitting edging linen hankies. When we walked in, she put away her work in jamjar, where she kept her handmade hook, with its wooden handle. This glimpse from the past made a lasting impression on me.
We later met other crocheters such as Tessie Leonard, Elisabeth Monahan, Annie Kerr and her sister Vera Reilly, but we weren’t able to find anyone who knew how to make the famous Clones knot, although Elisabeth made the motifs that were common to Clones Lace.
At this time I was employed by Irish World as a development officer, setting up new branches and employment projects of the the organisation in Ireland, in the UK and in NYC. We set up an employment project in the Clones area, teaching Clones Lace. At this stage I was not crocheting and Elisabeth Monahan was the instructor, though we had other tutors on various days, such as Florence Creighton, who is a colourful character from Newtownbutler,  Fermanagh.

Time passed by. I got married and then when I was having my first daughter Máiréad, a woman came to visit me in hospital in February 1989.  Nan Caulfield was a friend of my husband. She chatted away about crocheting gloves for her daughter’s debs and teaching the crochet in Monaghan.  Delighted to hear that she made and taught  Clones Lace, I asked her if she would come to Clones to teach a night class in Clones Lace, which she did.
I was among her students and she taught me how to make Irish Crochet squares, how to crochet motifs, using packing cord and she demonstrated the Clones Knot, as she had seen Mary Beggan of Roslea do it.  I also visited Mary Beggan, who died shortly afterwards. She used the shamrock Clones knot, or rolled dot as it is called locally, to edge doilies, which won her awards in the annual RDS craft competition. This is a very prestigious arts and craft fair held in Ireland each July, as part of the horse riding fair.

The following September, I taught my first night class in Clones Lace.  Then in 1990, we had our first summer school of Clones Lace, which we named the Cassandra Hand Summer school of Clones Lace, as Mamo said that there were no summer schools in Ireland which were named after women.

In the first few years, Eithne D’Arcy, who had written a book on Irish Crochet,  officially opened the summer school in Mamo’s teashop.  There was also a Clones Lace Gallery above the teashop. Mamo had been the national president of the ICA and was a great spokesperson. At this time, there was nobody crocheting the motifs and joining stitch in the area.  The fine squares were what was known as Clones Lace or Irish Crochet, but I was much more interested in the freeform element of the older Clones Lace, which had died out. Although Nan and Mary Beggan knew how to do the Clones knot, they didn’t put them into pieces. Elisabeth Monahan crocheted the picot filling stitch between her motifs.  I quickly and quietly learned how to crochet Clones Lace from the older people and I also examined the antique pieces of Clones Lace which were on exhibition in Mamo’s Clones Lace Gallery.  We had a workers co-operative of Clones Lace with fifteen outworkers, mostly from Fermanagh. Over ten years, we made Clones Lace for outlets all over the world, but mostly the US. Then in 2000, I decided I wanted to do other things with my life and I resigned as co-ordinator of the Guild. Clones Lace Guild was wound up as a co-operative.

Encouraged by Mamo, I decided to write a book on the local folklore of Clones Lace, with a how-to section on the intricracies of Clones Lace, aimed at the beginner, as I felt that the older books on Irish Crochet were difficult to interpret.  to be continued…

Clones Lace Workshops

An Cultúrlann, Béal Féirste (Belfast)

Aibreán 14 agus 21  2012

Ríomhphoist go:/ Email:

aisling@culturlann.ie

Loza Wool, Clondalkin, Dublin May 19 2012

Book a place with maureen@lozawool.com

The Constant Knitter May 26th 2012

88 Francis St

book your place with

info@theconstantknitter.ie

22nd Annual

Clones Lace Summer Workshop

June 27- July 1st 2012

in Ulster Canal Stores, Clones.

2012 Summerschool brochure

local B+B list

July 11 – 14th 2012

in Lacis, Berkeley SFO

Also Minneapolis/St Paul in July

hosted by Cornelia Griffin

Chicago August 4-5

hosted by Amy Steinmetz

North west Chicago Crochet Guild

ammetz@live.com

in July/August  2012.

Colpo, Bretagne France  Septembre 2012

Irish Crochet workshop 1-2 Septembre

West Cheshire,  UK  5-7 October 2012

More details of the above courses to follow in the coming months or by emailing me at 

maireslace@gmail.com

Email me personally at maireslace@gmail.com for more details

Clones Lace Summer Workshop  June 15-19th 2011

Máire Treanor cuts the cake to celebrate the

21st Annual Cassandra Hand Summerschool of Clones Lace.

Mother and daughter – Mary Martin with her daughter

Elizabeth, who made friendship bracelets for her friends,

while her mother concentrated on some fine crochet motifs!

Kathleen Kerley demonstrates some Carrickmacross Lace

in the Cassandra Hand Centre

A neck piece by Pat Tubb 2011

Ela Rzechula from Poland at summerschool 2011

Ela’s first piece of Clones Lace 2011

Famine tears Sept 2011

-presented to President Mary McAleese

President Mary McAleese and Máire Treanor

Sept 10 2011

Marcella Leonard, President Mary McAleese and Kevin Morgan with

‘Famine Tears.’

President McAleese talking to Eileen Crudden and Alice Carey

Clones Lace workshops in 2012:

Clones Lace Summer Workshop June 27th – July 1st 2012

Clones Lace Summer Workshop

local B+B list

Lacis, Berkeley 2012 – July 11-14th 2012 -date to be confirmed

L.A. 2012 – July 2012  Date to be confirmed

Minneapolis  2012 – date and venues to be confirmed

                     Mini workshops in MN:

Tuesday 2nd August 4-7pm in Steven Be Yarn Garage MN

Thursday 4th August 4-7pm in Bella Lana, MN

more comment and photos to follow…

StevenBe IC Workshop MN 2011

Antique Clones Lace

Antique Clones Lace – Irish Crochet

Shamrock Clones Knot Jabot

I first saw the Shamrock Clones Lace Jabot, below, in a chest of drawers, among other pieces of Lace, belonging to Eithne D’Arcy and her family, the Mc Gorrys, who were lace buyers in Clones up until the circa 1940s. Eithne told me that it was crocheted by an old woman in the hills beyond Roslea. It was probably crocheted with the help of her neighbours or family. When it was finished, she walked about 20 miles over hills and tracks it to sell it to Mrs McGorry. It was brown black, from the turf fire in her cottage. The McGorrys staff then ‘did it up’ in their laundry, so that it became white, crisp and beautiful.

I have always loved this piece, as it has the shamrock Clones knot filling stitch and would get it from the drawer each time I visited Eithne in the 1990s. When she died in November 1999, Eithne’s daughter, Daphne, kindly sold it to me and it is now a treasured part of my collection.

Venetian Needlepoint lace – sewn in early 18th century

according to lace experts  Jules Kliot (Lacis) and Anne MacIver (Sunnyvale Lace Museum)

The second piece is Venetian Point lace and dates from the early 18th century, according to lace experts. The bottom edging is done in bobbin lace, to make it easier to remove for washing purposes. This Venetian Point lace piece (small gros point) has been cut at either end and was part of a larger piece. It was part of the possessions of Lady Langham of Tempo Manor, in Fermanagh, formerly the seat of a senior branch of the Maguires, up until the early 19th century. We can only imagine its history… It has a raised outline around the motifs, which is one of the identifying features of Innishmacsaint lace, and which is a feature of one of the Brady neck bands. Comparing the Venetian Point lace piece with the Brady neck bands, I became more aware of how Venetian Point lace would have influenced Clones Lace and Irish Crochet lace in the late 1840s-1850s, before the  people began crocheting their own motifs, inspired by the wild flowers and commonplace items around them ( see Clones Lace, 2nd edition, by Máire Treanor, Lacis 2010)

1st and 2nd neckband are Clones lace samples from Edward Brady, a Clones Lace Buyer

The 3rd neckband was worn by the mother of Dorothy Scott, a school teacher in Temora, New South Wales between 1903-4. All three neckbands were crocheted by the same group of crocheters in Clones.

The 3rd and 4th neckbands are samples and came from a trunk, belonging to a Clones lace buyer in Clones – Edward Brady, who was a lace exporter from the late nineteenth century – 1940. Dorothy Scott sent me the third piece  from Australia. It belonged to her mother, a school teacher in the Boundary Villa School, near Temora, New South Wales, in about 1903-4. All 3 pieces were made by the same group of women in the Clones area, as they have the same motifs and shape. The  second piece has needle filling stitches. The 3rd and 5th pieces have the same water lily motifs. They are very similar to Venetian Needlepoint lace, which inspired Irish Crochet Lace.

More to be added…

 

Travelling with Clones Lace

Dora Ohrenstein and Máire Treanor in an atmospheric

French Restuarant, in upper Manhatten, NYC,  discussing Máire’s Antique

Clones Lace Collection and Dora’s forthcoming tour of

Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyiv, Ukraine in August 2010

Máire and  Lacheryl Cillie  from Alabama, at the Knitting and Crochet Show in Manchester NH July 2010

One of the groups that took workshop in ‘Be Creative with Clones Lace’

at the Knitting and Crochet Show in Manchester NH.

July 2010

- Clones Irish Crochet Lace workshops

at the World Famous Lacis in Berkeley SF

July 2010

-after the Clones Lace workshop in JJ Hill House,

Minneapolis in July 2010.

Antonina Kuznetsova (Tonya) and Máire enjoy a boat ride in Kyiv, Ukraine

August 2010

About Clones Lace Workshops

20th Clones Lace Summer  Workshop

June 24-28th 2010

The 20th Clones lace workshop was a great success. I will insert some photos to show you later.  It took place from June 24-28th 2010. As part of the evening events, we had our usual visit to the Sheelin Museum of Irish Lace in Bellinaleck, County Fermanagh, which is always a lovely evening, looking at all the various kinds of Irish lace – Needlepoint – Youghal, Kenmare and Innishmacsaint – the net lace of Limerick and the applique, net and needlepoint of Carrickmacross.  Of course the Irish Crochet was what fascinated most of us.

Every year, I bring a group here and every year, I am inspired  by the beautiful work that I see, thinking of the hours upon hours that these women spent, in dim light and squalid conditions, crocheting or sewing, to make beautiful creations that they could only dream about wearing.  After spending some time with Rosemary, we went  next door to the restaurant and had some scrumptious food and dessert to finish off a most enjoyable  evening, by the shores of Lough Erne.

On Friday evening we did the Cassandra Hand Trail. We started our evening in Clones, at the Church of Ireland, where Cassandra’s husband was rector from 1847 until the 1860s. We looked at the plaque in her memory and at the organ which she donated, bought with the proceeds of the lace industry, which she spearheaded. We then walked to the Cassandra Hand Centre, which was  built  as a school for girls and infants in 1859, again with the proceeds of the lace money.  We travelled out to her home at Altertate, which later became Bishopscourt.  Miriam Moore, who now lives in this beautiful house, welcomed us warmly and brought us through her home, where we decided that the brightest room must have been the lace room, where groups of women were taught crochet by women who had travelled from County Kildare, during the famine. We imagined how these women probably learned crochet as part of  a small group  and then went back to their own communities and taught it to other groups of women and girls.  By 1850, according to the Northern Standard, there were 1500 lace makers in the area, in a 15 mile radius. They probably copied Venetian needlepoint lace at this stage, but later, as they became more confident, created their own flowers, motifs and filling stitches.  It is impossible to say when the Clones Knot was created as a filling stitch, but as I learn more  about Clones Lace, I realize that the Venetian-like lace was probably what they made at this stage and then, as more people crocheted, they developed their own motifs from the hedges and flowers that grew around them.  We also went out to Cassandra Hand’s grave at Clogh Cemetery and were horrified that it was in such bad repair.  I will put up some photos to show its condition. We would like to raise some money and get it repaired as soon as possible.

The Hand plot in Clogh, County Fermanagh

is in need of some repair!

On Saturday, we had a lovely talk on Cassandra Hand, by Pat Tubb, who has been doing the family history of the Hand Family.

Orla Breslin then gave a powerpoint demonstration on freeform crochet, which developed from Irish Crochet. Orla had lots of examples of freeform, including a lovely bag that she had crocheted, and of  hyperbolic crochet.  We spent a couple of hours, listening to Orla and looking at her samples and then relaxed over a few drinks in the Lennard Arms Hotel.  Everybody enjoyed the weekend

To come:

Visit to the States:

The Met Museum, NYC

CGOA Conference, Manchester NH

Lacis Museum, Berkeley SF

JJ Hill House, Minneapolis MN

Trip to Kiev:

with Dora Ohrenstein and Tonya Dashkovskaya

lots of photos to come over the next few days.

Old Skills New Friends

January 2010

This is a cross community – cross border project between Clones, Co Monaghan and Maghery, Co Armagh. The inspiration behind the project was the reopening of the Ulster Canal which will enhance the two  communities, both socially and economically.  Clones is at one end of the Ulster Canal, quite close to Lough Erne and the river Finn, travelling through Monaghan, Castle Leslie, Tynan abbey, into Benburb, where it joins the river Blackwater, opening into Lough  Neagh at Maghery.

The Maghery group are bringing their boatbuilding and curragh skills to Clones, while Clones crochet Lace will be taught to the Maghery group. As part of this project,  in January 2010, Máire Treanor brought her skills to a group of 55 oaps in a cross community  project and a  similar number of kids from various schools in the area.

Special Occasions

Designed by Bridin Twist for Irish Garden in Expo 90, Ossaka, Japan 1990. Crocheted by Máire Treanor, Eieen McAleer, Elisabeth Monaghan and Annetta Hughes.

Cáit Treanor in Christening outfit designed and crocheted by Máire Treanor