Imagine … Lace at Waddesdon

This exhibition of lace at Waddesdon Manor is a response by lacemakers to the house and its collection. Some of the pieces are individual responses and others have been worked by groups, such as ‘Phantom’ in the image above which is a response to the chandelier in the breakfast room by Norfolk Lacemakers. Some of the work is a response to the lace collection at Waddesdon, following a study day last year, such as Jane Atkinson’s ‘Made to fade’ panel and my own curtain with Bedfordshire style lace which I’ll blog about another time. Textiles in picture form had been the inspiration for Sue McLaggan’s body piece based on designs for the Ballet Russe and for Laura Marsden who had made a beautiful lace ruff from plastic bags, based on a 17th century portrait of a woman in a ruff. Others had been inspired by the Sevres porcelain collection, including Gill Bird’s three dimensional trumpet tiara and Judith Connors’ floral tiara. Jenny Thurgood’s miniature box was inspired by the collection of enamel snuff boxes. While Gail Baxter linked a Meissen bird cage and the aviary in her sparkling black stole ‘Gilded cage’. Lauran Sundin also linked two themes in her stunning black and gold necklace, in this case a carpet and mourning jewellery. Others had used the structure of the building as inspiration including Denise Watts whose necklace referenced the staircase and Nicole Valsesia-Lair who had based her work on the skyline of the Manor house itself. There were so many inspirational themes and pieces and I don’t have space to mention them all, but the exhibition runs until 26 October so there is plenty of time to go and see them for yourself.