Would you like lace to be part of your community activities? 

It's a challenge, but it's possible with large lace installations of your own design & creation. 

We cannot make the lace for you, but we can share our experience on how we have done it in Girona since 2017 within the flowers festival, Girona Temps de Flors. 

M MERCÈ ROVIRA: LACE ARTIST

I made lace at school when I was a child, from 7 to 10 years old, approximately.

I didn't like it, it was torture, while I was doing lace my brothers played in the woods and fields near our home... At that time, in the afternoon, the women sewed and made crafts, embroidery; boys, instead, were having fun with whatever they wanted. Obviously when I grew up and studied, with the excuse of studying I stopped it completely.

In 2001, my parents had a car accident, my father died on the road and my mother was very badly injured but she survived him for 10 more years. During this time, we had to socialize her to recover from the physical and psychological wounds of the accident, and we took her to make lace, which she had done as a child too. I liked this experience and I started doing it to compensate for the stress of so many hours and so many work related issues in my head... This is how, at the age of 62, I re-entered the world of lace.

I have made all kinds of lace since then: geometric, tulle, Flanders, Binche, needlework... and contemporary since I discovered it. It’s my favorite! I find that it allows me to be myself, express my feelings, experiment with new stitches and new materials.

I promoted the foundation of the Girona Lacemakers Association to improve the quality of lace in our region, because every time we went out to the squares to make lace we saw them all the same, boring, repetitive, copy after copy...

The years go by and every day I am busier doing lace projects and stimulating innovation in the world of lace than making lace. It is not pleasant, but I think it is good and someone has to do it.

I am currently president of Girona Lacemakers, of OIDFA Spain, and vice president of OIDFA international.

This past September we started a new project that we are very excited about: the Girona Contemporary Lace Biennial. We want to highlight creation in lace, the ability of contemporary lace to help express one's feelings and abilities, inspiration, mastery of technique and research on new materials in lacemaking, the occupation of space with lace and the non-space, etc.

An invitation to register for this Zoom webinar will be sent to all current IOLI members a week before the event.