Museum of lace in Vologda and the secrets of Vologda lacemakers. Vologda lace - history, famous masters and works Vologda lace description

Vologda lace is a special phenomenon in the folk art of the Russian North. The richness and variety of patterns, purity of lines, measured rhythms of ornaments, high skill - such is his artistic originality. Poems and songs have been written about Vologda lace, films have been created, and colorful booklets have been published. Vologda lace is known all over the world; for a long time it personified the glory of Russian lace.

The word “lace” comes from “to surround”, to decorate the edges of clothes and other fabric items with elegant trim. Lace making has been known in Rus' for a long time. Women of all classes practiced it. The dresses of kings, princes and boyars were decorated with lace made of gold, silver and silk threads; In folk clothing, lace made from linen yarn was used, and from the end of the 19th century - from cotton threads.

The artistic features of Vologda lace developed already in the 17th-18th centuries. Until the 19th century, lace making had the character of a home artistic craft. In the 20s of the 19th century, a lace factory was founded in the vicinity of Vologda, where dozens of serf lacemakers worked. In the middle of the 19th century, lace making on Vologda soil turned into a craft that was practiced by thousands of craftswomen in different counties. This craft was especially developed in the Vologda, Kadnikovsky and Gryazovets districts. Each of them has developed local features of patterns and weaving techniques, its own range of lace products, but only a subtle connoisseur of this art can distinguish them. The lace industry in the Vologda province reached its peak in the second half of the 19th century. If in 1893 four thousand craftswomen were engaged in weaving, then in 1912 there were almost forty thousand. The fame of Vologda lace has crossed the borders of the country. The fashion for it has spread to many European countries.

A distinctive feature of traditional Vologda paired lace is a clear division of the “structure” of the lace into a pattern and a background. As a result, large and smooth forms of the ornament are very expressively highlighted by a continuous line, even in width throughout the entire pattern. In early Vologda lace, stylized images of birds, trees of life and other ancient motifs characteristic of embroidery of more ancient origin varied as the leading ornament. Today Vologda lace is distinguished by a variety of ornaments, monumental forms and a predominance of floral motifs.

The Vologda fishery has received wide recognition both in Russia and abroad. The talent and skill of Vologda artists and lacemakers have been repeatedly noted at many international and domestic exhibitions. In 1937, at the international exhibition in Paris, the Vologda Lace Union was awarded the highest award - the Grand Prix - for the novelty and artistic execution of lace products; at the Brussels exhibition in 1958, Vologda lace was awarded a gold medal. And in 1968, the leading artists of the Snezhinka production association were awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR named after I.E. Repina. The oldest lacemaker K.V. put a lot of imagination, creative work, and high skill into her work. Isakov, famous masters of their craft E.Ya. Khumala, V.V. Sibirtseva, Honored Artists of the RSFSR V.D. Veselova and V.N. Elfina. Many of their works are kept in the country's largest museums.

The features common to all Vologda lace in the work of each master acquire an individual coloring. Thus, the works of K.V. Isakova is developing a chamber lyrical direction. Tenderness and warmth of the images distinguish her panel “Deer”, created in 1968. It depicts spruce trees and galloping deer. Measured repetitions of figures, their arrangement in rows, a clear pattern with a relief outline against the background of a light through lattice, like flying snowflakes and the white color of linen threads - all this gives rise to the image of a winter forest immersed in silence.

The creativity of V.D. is diverse. Veselova. A hereditary lacemaker, she perfectly knows all the secrets of lace making, which allows her to create small household items and decorative panels at an equally high artistic level. One of Veselova’s unique works is the “Rook” tablecloth. It combines all the best features of the artist’s work: the poetry of the images, the nobility of the design, the wealth of developments in detail, the refinement of the technical execution of the lace, its indispensable conditioning by the content and nature of the ornament.

The Vologda association received its name in 1964 after the tablecloth “Snowflake” by another outstanding lacemaker, V.N. Elfina. Her work gravitates towards monumental compositions and large forms of ornament. In 1978, Elfina performed the panel “The Singing Tree”. It symbolizes spring and the flowering of nature associated with its arrival, the awakening of life, and the polyphonic singing of birds. The lush Tree of Life is dotted with flowers and birds sitting on it. The dense pattern is contrasted with a light openwork background. The combination of gray and white threads gives the panel a silvery tint.

Vologda lace today is primarily the Snezhinka lace company, where professional lacemakers and experienced artists work; this is a vocational school where future lacemakers are trained, as well as additional education institutions where young Vologda residents get acquainted with the history of lacemaking and learn the basics of this skill. The Vologda lace company “Snezhinka” is a regular participant in international and Russian exhibitions. The company cooperates with domestic and foreign partners. The most important aspect of the creativity of craft artists is the creation of works for museums and exhibitions. These are mainly panels, curtains, tablecloths. Today we can rightfully say that Vologda lace deserves to be included in the world treasury of lace making.

1. VOLOGDA - LACE CITY.

Vologda (the same age as Moscow) was founded in 1147, 450 km north of the Russian capital and is located on both banks of the Vologda River, which gave its name to the future city. “Vologda” can be translated from Finno-Ugric as “white (clean, transparent) water.”

The route to Vologda from Moscow lies through Sergiev Posad, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov-Veliky, Yaroslavl and Danilov. Moving further north, you can reach the famous Kirillo-Belozersky and Ferapontov monasteries.

More than two hundred historical, architectural and cultural monuments are known in Vologda. It's funny that surviving wooden houses are often decorated with carvings and decorative elements reminiscent of wooden lace.

On the picture: Wooden building of the Vologda library. Photo from 2013.

2. WHAT IS IT, VOLOGDA LACE?

The main distinguishing feature of Vologda lace is a well-recognized large pattern, woven with thickened thread (filigree) in the form of a smoothly bending (“wagging”) plain ribbon. Wide ribbons alternate with areas of transparent patterned weaving.

Ornaments of plant origin are often used. Filigree is usually white, less often the color of unbleached linen or black. To create a picture, images of fans, scallops, flowers, trees, and birds are used.

There are two types of Vologda lace. In the first case, the elements of a large main pattern of “canvas-vilyushka” are adjacent to each other. Minor voids between them are filled with oblique diagonal grids.

In the second, more common version, transparent areas with lattices of “spiders”, nets and braids play no less important role than the main pattern, shading and emphasizing its dynamic curves.

3. HOW IS THIS DONE?

To weave Vologda lace, you will need a tightly stuffed cylindrical cushion (“kuftyr”) filled with hay, straw, sawdust, etc., a technical drawing of lace on thick paper (“skolok”), bobbins (elongated wooden “reels” of a special shape with thread) and a set of pins.

First, the chip pattern is fixed on the roller. Pins are stuck into the elements of the design on paper. The lacemaker transfers bobbins with taut threads from hand to hand, wrapping around pins fixed at the points of the design. As the lace element is completed, the pins are moved to the next points of the pattern.

Based on the weaving technique, there are numbered, paired and chain laces.

Number lace is the simplest. It is performed even without using a pattern with a small number of bobbins.

Paired - the most complex Vologda lace is woven together with a large number of pairs of bobbins - up to several hundred pairs! How one can avoid getting confused in them is completely incomprehensible to the uninitiated viewer... When making it, the background and the pattern are woven simultaneously.

Coupling Vologda lace requires no more than 6...12 pairs of bobbins (which makes the craftswoman’s life much easier). The finished elements are woven (“linked”) together using, for example, a crochet hook. In this way, huge tablecloths or panels are created, on which dozens of craftswomen work simultaneously.

4. HISTORY.

It is believed that the word “lace” is derived from the word “surround”, i.e. decorate the edges of textile products with decorative trim in a circle.

The lace-making technique appeared in the Vologda region no later than the 17th century and was borrowed from lacemakers in Italy and Flanders (the territory of modern Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France).

As an independent craft, the emergence of Vologda lace dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. Around this time, in a number of landowner estates in the Vologda region, local craftswomen began to weave openwork decorations for clothing, imitating European lacemakers.

In large estates, entire “lace factories” were created, producing products for delivery to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities.

Gradually, the lace-making technique was transferred to peasant families, turning into a folk art craft.

Before the revolution, there were about 40,000 lacemakers in the Vologda province.

5. MUSEUM OF VOLOGDA LACE.

In 2010, the Lace Museum was opened in the Sorokin-Brianchaninov mansion (XVIII century) with access to Kremlin Square.

The museum's exposition clearly presents all stages of the origin and development of lace making in the Vologda region and global trends in the development of this craft from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 21st century.

In August 2013, on the way to Ferapontovo, we stopped in Vologda for several days. We were one of the first to visit the Lace Museum with its rich collection of the famous Vologda lace and the finest European lace products with gold and silver threads.

It was forbidden to take photographs at the Lace Museum, so we were lucky enough to take memorable photos and get acquainted with the work of lacemakers only in the salon-shop of the Snezhinka lace company.

In 2015, the Vologda Lace Museum, according to reviews from visitors to the exhibition, entered the top ten best museums in Russia.

You can get acquainted with the works of Vologda lacemakers in Moscow, at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Arts,

6. EXHIBITIONS AND AWARDS

Vologda lace products have repeatedly received first places at international exhibitions in Paris and Brussels.

An invaluable contribution to the preservation of traditional and the creation of new patterns for lace was made by hereditary lacemaker Vera Dmitrievna Veselova (1919-2006), who worked for a long time as the chief artist of the lace association “Snezhinka”, as well as her daughter, Nadezhda Valerievna.

It is gratifying to note that at the Exhibition-Fair of Russian Folk Art Crafts “Ladya-2017. Winter's Tale” at the Moscow Expo Center on Krasnaya Presnya in December 2017, Vologda residents again rose to the occasion.

According to the results of the competition within the exhibition, a lace umbrella made by Vologda resident Nina Sumarokova, a student at the Governor’s College of Folk Crafts, took an honorable third place.

7. LACE AS A GIFT.

Do you want to give an unusual handmade gift, professionally made in the best traditions of folk arts and crafts? Not the discredited “hand made” one, crudely manufactured by inept hands and sold in crowded tourist areas around the world.

Give a real product from Vologda lace, woven by the hands of lacemakers on gently tapping wooden bobbins, exactly as their grandmothers and great-grandmothers did it...

In the online store of the Vologda lace company Snezhinka LLC, the price range of lace gifts is very wide: you can buy a lace collar for 2,640 rubles, or you can buy a handmade Tulip bolero jacket for 170,000 rubles.

Moreover, you can use your imagination and order a product with your wishes and receive, for example, a unique lace panel with your company logo.

In souvenir shops at museums you can sometimes find small but very expressive fragments or finished products from handmade Vologda lace, placed against a contrasting background in a frame under glass.

Choose, order and give the real thing to your dear people!

8. VOLOGDA LACE - NMPT No. 3.

VOLOGDA LACE

Application number: 93042565

Date of state registration: 05.25.1994

Product specification:
Lace, curtains, bedspreads, napkins, tablecloths, runners, towels, collars, inserts, vests, blouses, shirtfronts, headscarves, cuffs, coats, capes, scarves, ties, stoles, capes, gloves, aprons, shawls, suits, frill, lace bookmarks. Vologda lace has high artistry, expressiveness of forms, strict rhythm, decorative richness and perfection of execution technique. Linen, silk, metal, and cotton threads are used to make lace. In Vologda lace, two types of weaving techniques are used: paired and chained. The most characteristic patterns of Vologda paired lace are built from clear, simple geometric shapes repeated in a calm rhythm. Lace patterns consist of transparent spiders inscribed in rhombic shapes, various lattices, nets, which are combined with triangles or zigzag motifs of denser weaving. There are also round, less often oval shapes filled with stars, rosettes, and flower corollas. The ornament of Vologda coupling laces features ancient characteristic motifs: flowers with five and seven petals, large multi-petaled flowers similar to sunflowers, and flowers enclosed in a circle or oval, leaves of various shapes - sometimes modest trefoils, sometimes large ones reminiscent of a fern. Vologda lace is also characterized by the theme of winter, winter forest, snowflakes. The lace pattern is made using thick linen with or without filigree; often the linen turns into a mesh, which gives the design a lightness and delicacy. Vologda lace patterns have smooth, softly curved lines, symmetrically located motifs or repeating elements. Floral, floral compositions or plot scenes stand out clearly against the light openwork background of wicker lattices, twisted loops give the lace airiness, and dense stitches and spiders create a decorative effect. The richest ornamental traditions of the northern region contributed to the formation of a unique visual language of Vologda lace. Vologda lace is distinguished by its special elegance, poetic imagery, amazing plasticity of ornaments and their melodiousness.

CERTIFICATE 3/2

Registration number of the appellation of origin of the goods: 3

Certificate number for the right to use: 3/2

Application number: 200672522

Registration date: 07/02/2007

Certificate expiration date: 09/01/2016

Name of place of origin of the goods:
VOLOGDA LACE

Certificate holder:
Closed joint-stock company Vologda lace company "SNOWFLAKE", 160012, Vologda, st. Kozlenskaya, 119-a (RU)

Product specification:
Lace

Vologda

Extension of the validity period of the certificate of exclusive right to the appellation of origin of goods

Certificate holder(s):
Limited Liability Company Vologda Lace Firm "Snezhinka", 160012, Vologda region, Vologda, st. Kozlenskaya, 119, building A (RU)

Date until which the validity of the certificate is extended: 09/01/2026

Date of entry into the State Register: 02/17/2017

CERTIFICATE 3/3

State registration number: 3

Certificate number: 3/3

Application number: 2012743898

State registration date: 02/14/2014

Certificate expiration date: 12/06/2022

Name of place of origin of the goods:
VOLOGDA LACE

Certificate holder(s):
Limited Liability Company "Vologda Lacemaker", 160012, Vologda Region, Vologda, Sovetsky Prospekt, 135B (RU)

Product specification:
Lace, lace products

Indication of the place of origin (production) of the goods (borders of the geographical object):
Vologda city

For questions regarding registration of NMPT, please contact
to the patent attorney of the Russian Federation, reg. No. 498

Vologda lace: past, present, future

Lace is an amazing creation of human imagination, which originated as a type of decorative decoration of fabric products and over time enriched the sphere of art, striking with the luxury of openwork patterns and weaves.

Lace is divided into needle-sewn and bobbin lace. Initially, in Europe, embroidered lace belonged to the aristocracy, and bobbin lace was common among the people.

It is interesting that in the history of Russian bobbin lace there is a similar division. Some laces had an aristocratic character, while others had a folk character. The first were imitation of foreign models, and the second, which were in use among the people, turned out to be so original that it is difficult to determine the history of their origin.

The history of the appearance and development of lace is full of mysteries and contradictions.
Italy and Flanders are considered the most ancient centers of lace making. From them all other European countries learned lace making.

There is a legend that in 1725 Peter I ordered 250 lacemakers from the Brabant monasteries to teach orphans how to weave lace in the Novodevichy Convent. How long this training existed in the monastery is unknown. But what’s interesting is that in the samples of lace preserved in different parts of Russia, and in the names of these laces, many old lacemakers pointed to “Draban (i.e. Brabant) thread.”

Vologda lace

“No center of the lace industry in Russia enjoyed such great fame as the city of Vologda and its humble inhabitants,” wrote Sofya Davydova in her famous study “Russian lace and Russian lacemakers.”

It is still unknown when the art of lace weaving arose in the vast Vologda region, and why this craft turned out to be so beloved and popular in the North, specifically on the Vologda lands.

Perhaps the predetermining factors were the developed flax growing and trade routes that ran here from north to south and brought the influence of foreign fashion, which took on its national forms on Russian soil.

Lace making as a craft has existed in the Vologda province since 1820. Official research (by S.A. Davydova) has established that during serfdom, in all significant landowner estates of the province there were lace “factories” that supplied lace products to St. Petersburg and Moscow.

And one of these factories was founded by the landowner Zasetskaya three miles from Vologda in the village of Kovyrino no later than the 20s of the 19th century. There, serfs wove the finest lace for finishing dresses and linen, imitating Western European patterns.

Over time, lace weaving moved from landowner workshops to the people and became one of the types of folk art that reflected the needs and tastes of wide circles of the local population.

A little later, Anfiya Fedorovna Bryantseva developed a remarkable activity in Vologda. The talented craftswoman came up with the happy idea of ​​combining thick “Belozersky” style canvas with wicker latticework.

This is how the famous, and now fashionable, “Vologda manner” came about. Anfiya, together with her daughter Sophia, developed a number of original lace designs and samples, introduced small and large lace items into use, such as talmas, capes, entire costumes, etc. They also taught lace making to over 800 urban and rural girls and women.

They say that Tsar Peter often traveled to overseas countries. I loved to see with my own eyes how and what. I was wondering where and what good things to learn. One day he comes to the Azure Sea. The overseas king meets him, takes him to the palace, shows him all sorts of wonders.
“I feel sorry for you, Tsar Peter,” he says, “you live among dark people.” They don’t know anything, they can’t do anything. Look at the kind of craftswomen in my kingdom. And shows a lace tablecloth. Tsar Peter looked at the tablecloth and laughed:
- Where in your country have you seen birch trees and daisies?
This is Russian lace from my country.

This cannot be true! - the king exclaimed and began to examine the tablecloth through a magnifying glass. But look, don’t look - a birch will remain a birch. The king got angry and ordered the merchants to be called to him. They threw themselves at the king’s feet and confessed
- We are to blame, Your Royal Majesty. They did not order execution, they ordered mercy. This is not the work of our craftswomen, but bought from Russian lacemakers - from the seven Catherines. Nobody weaves lace better than them. And this lace is called Vologda."

Now you can hear: “Well, there were laces, and there are none - is it really that important? These are not shirts, not dresses, not coats. It’s fun, it’s decoration...” Yes, of course, lace is just decoration. The thing in everyday life is, one might say, not obligatory. Especially today. And yet, for some reason, women and girls still cannot look at them indifferently: they become quiet, examine, finger or stroke them, and the eyes of each are filled with such light and joy that you are afraid to utter a word next to them, so as not to frighten away this amazing feeling..

And in the old days, men had exactly the same attitude towards lace. And in France, for example, and in Spain and Flanders, such fantastic passions boiled around these openwork decorations, and such cunning and cruel events unfolded that they would be more than enough for a dozen adventure novels. People went crazy over lace, people went broke over lace, lace issues were discussed by state councils, kings, cardinals and ministers.

They were imprisoned for lace, beaten with whips and beheaded. Lace, they say, even saved an entire nation, an entire state - Flanders (modern Belgium) from poverty. And although at the end of the sixteenth and in the seventeenth centuries a huge number of them were already produced, the best of them were still very expensive, and King Philip III of Spain even forbade his subjects to wear lace at all, so that people would no longer go bankrupt from their addiction to this decoration.

Light, transparent, golden-yellow and black lace with subtle patterns and various small “flies” on tulle backgrounds is still produced in those ancient manufactories, and, like all lace, they are called by the names of the cities that gave birth to them. French Alençons, Valenciennes and Chantilly became very famous, but they still could not eclipse the glory of Flemish lace.

In Flanders, they generally believed and continue to believe that lace making was born here. Whether this is true or not, in any case, the most common weaving today - with bobbins - was actually invented there. The main feature of Flemish lace is its extraordinary, almost airy delicacy and always a very elegant pattern on the so-called snowy backgrounds twinkling with stars.

But why did people stop at nothing for these decorations? And just look at any women's dress trimmed with lace. Even if there are very few of them, some narrow trim - and this dress looks elegant. And if there is more lace - a collar, jabot or cuffs, for example - the style of the dress is no longer important, it is in any case very solemn, beautiful and festive. And the more there are, the greater the feeling of celebration.

Yes, remember the musketeers and their outfits in abundant lace. After all, really, they are perceived as participants in some grandiose and endless masquerade ball, although they were just soldiers. And the characters in famous paintings by Rubens, Velazquez, Frans Hals, Van Dyck... Kings, chambermaids, generals, doctors, merchants, housewives, jesters, drunkards... Different classes, different faces and settings, but the impression is as if everyone’s life of them also looked like a continuous beautiful holiday. But this is not so.

Life in those days was characterized by medieval rudeness, it was full of poverty, violence and cruelty... But people did not want to notice this. They, as at all times, wanted joy, wanted to feel happy, and so they found jewelry that suited any clothing perfectly and made everyone extraordinarily beautiful, bringing a feeling of eternal holiday. That is, everyone began to wear the holidays on themselves. Everyone began to wear it... And not just beauty and elegance, but festive beauty and elegance - these are the main properties of any lace, its essence. And while people are looking for joy, they will be carried away by lace...

Now only a few dozen lacemakers work at the Vologda lace factory. Moreover, there are several artists - the golden fund of the enterprise - who come up with drawings and patterns. This is all that remains of the once multi-thousand-strong artel of Vologda craftswomen. The local school graduates 30 young lacemakers every year, but for obvious reasons, almost all of them go elsewhere.

Over the past few years, half of the workers have left the enterprise - they went into trade, as conductors. The most persistent and creative ones remained. “Comfortable in their craft...” When the matter has truly taken hold of the soul, women weave their patterns until their death. “If I die, then take a piece to the factory and finish it,” the granny asks her granddaughter. The oldest home-based lacemaker is 87 years old.

So does Russia need Vologda lace? Is it necessary for one of the few remaining industries in the country, still unwilling to succumb to the onslaught of gross impersonality. I think it is needed. Because no self-respecting country abandons folk art. Just as paintings by Van Gogh and Velazquez are not thrown into a landfill.
This is a national treasure. Otherwise, such a country loses glory and prestige, and the ability to create is washed out from the genetic memory of the people and the people become mediocre.

- an ancient form of decorative and applied art. Data from the history of art and writing suggest that lace making was known to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. At the end of the 15th – beginning of the 16th centuries, it became widespread throughout Europe. Italy occupied first place in this industry for a long time, but after some time it had to give up leadership to France and Flanders.

In Russia, the first information about lace date back to the 13th century. The Ipatiev Chronicle tells how in 1252 Prince Daniil Galitsky received foreign ambassadors in rich clothes with amazing trimmings reminiscent of lace. But they became a noticeable phenomenon in everyday life in Russia in the 17th century. Moreover lace products were common at the royal court, and among merchants and peasants. Only their quality, of course, was different.

The earliest examples of Russian lace making, preserved in museum collections, date back to the 17th century. This is the so-called “golden” lace made of gold and silver threads. They were sold by weight, taking into account, first of all, the value of precious metals, not mastery of execution. These laces were used For decoration outfits made of dense expensive fabrics - brocade, velvet, patterned silk. They were also used for decorating church utensils.

Under the reign of PeterI lace-makers were sent to Russia from abroad. The history of the appearance and development of lace is full of mysteries and contradictions. There is a legend that in 1725 Peter I ordered 250 lacemakers from the Brabant monasteries, to teach lace weaving to orphans in the Novodevichy Convent. How long this training existed in the monastery is unknown. But what’s interesting is that in the samples of lace preserved in different parts of Russia, and in the names of these laces, many old lacemakers pointed to “Draban (i.e. Brabant) thread.”

Lace (fragment)

The fashion for this craft has led to the fact that many wives of Russian nobles began to study techniques for working with bobbins, and organized workshops in their estates where serf peasant women weaved lace. Convents have also become famous for their skill in this matter.. By the end of the 18th century. The artistic features of Russian lace-making centers were formed. Such centers were Vologda, Rostov, Galich, Kalyazin, Torzhok, Balakhna, Ryazan.

Vologda lace is a type of Russian lace, woven on bobbins(wooden sticks), common in the Vologda region.

To make Vologda lace you need: cushion cushion; bobbins; juniper or birch; pins; chip. A typical material for Vologda lace is linen, bleached or harsh.

In the 17th century, lacemakers mastered the technique of weaving lace using silver and gold threads made from drawn wire or from a silk core thread entwined with a metal thread.

The beginning of the craft dates back to 1820, when near Vologda, on the estates of landowners, serfs began to weave trims for dresses and linen, imitating Western European ones.

Lace Museum (Vologda). Exposition of the 20th century. Lace “Mausoleum”

During the times of serfdom, in all significant landowner estates of the province there were lace “factories” that supplied lace products to St. Petersburg and Moscow. One of these factories was founded by landowner Zasetskaya three miles from Vologda in the village of Kovyrino no later than the 20s of the 19th century. There, serfs wove the finest lace for finishing dresses and linen, imitating Western European patterns.

Lace Museum (Vologda). Exposition of the 20th century. Lace “Star”

Over time, lace weaving moved from landowner workshops to the people and became one of the types of folk art that reflected the needs and tastes of wide circles of the local population.

This was facilitated by several circumstances: after serfdom was abolished, peasants had a freer choice of occupation, and the demand for lace increased.

Their production brought additional income to peasant families.

It turned out to be very important that the materials needed for weaving lace were inexpensive. Craftswomen do not require specially equipped premises. Lacemakers could practice this craft in their free time from working on land.

In 1893, in the Vologda province, 4,000 craftswomen were engaged in lace making, in 1912 - 40,000. In 1928, a vocational school for lacemakers was created in Vologda. In 1930, the Vologda Lace Union was created. In 1935 - an art laboratory at the Vologda Lace Union.

In the 30s of the 20th century, images reflecting Soviet reality appeared in lace. Until the 40s. In the 20th century, measured lace for finishing linen predominated; later, piece products became the main ones - runners, napkins, elegant removable parts of women's clothing - collars, jabots, capes, scarves, ties, gloves etc.

In 1960, the Vologda lace association “Snezhinka” was organized. Manufactured are measured lace, bedspreads, napkins, curtains, as well as unique exhibition samples based on sketches by artists (A. A. Korableva, M. A. Guseva, etc.).

Lace “Lukomorye” (fragment)

Vologda lace has repeatedly received the highest awards at exhibitions:

– at an exhibition in Brussels in 1958 they were awarded gold medal Vologda lace curtain “Russian motives”;

– received in 1925 gold medal at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris;

- in 1937 they were awarded an award at the Paris Exhibition The Grand Prix.

In 1964 in Vologda they created lace association "Snowflake". It got its name from the famous tablecloth “Snowflake” by V.N. Elfina. However, similar motifs were widely used in lace products earlier.

November 3, 2010 in Vologda, in the building of the former State Bank on Kremlin Square, 12, The Lace Museum opened. The main exhibition presents more than 500 items telling about the foundation and development of this traditional artistic craft of the Vologda region.

You can get acquainted with specimens of Vologda lace in the Vologda Museum-Reserve, the Vologda Lace Museum, the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Arts, as well as in the museum of the Snezhinka lace company.

An article about the Lace Museum in Vologda is located