Lace Finds in Budapest Hungary

Kalocsz 'Lace'

This is another posting of my lace finds from my recent honeymoon trip to eastern Europe (Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest).

I will let you in on a little secret....I'm also interested in needle lace in addition to my main love of tatting.  I grew up 'embroidering' and doing every form of fiber art that I could get my hands on (knitting, crochet, macrame, surface embroidery) in rural Nebraska.  I learned to tat a bit later in my childhood years. 

In addition to my Split Ring Tatting Addiction, I also teach and design needlelace in the following types:  Carrickmacross (Irish),  Teneriffe/Nanduti (Spanish, Paraguay), and Romanian Point Lace.

I had two conflicting lace-related happenings to report to you from my trip:

1.  I knew that Budapest, Hungary was close to Kiskunhalas, Hungary where the extremely beautiful Halas Lace is still produced.  I didn't have the time to take a side-trip to Kiskunhalas so I asked around Budapest. The Budapest textile/lace merchants knew about it and said that 'No, I wouldn't find it in Budapest' and that 'It's expensive'.  So no Halas Lace as a souvenir for me.  Even if I had found some, I probably would not have wanted to pay the price they want for even a small piece!

2.  I was quite pleasantly surprised to find alot of lace and textile shops in Budapest.  The big surprise was finding what I know as 'Romanian Point Lace'.  They call it 'Macrame Lace'.  Of course this country is close to Translyvannia (in Romania) where I know the lace to come from.  What I found out is through the ages, alot of Hungarians ended up in Romania and vice versa.  So that is why the lace is prevalent there.

So, I was in Macrame/Romanian Point Lace Heaven for several days, buying and examining pieces. 
Actually it wasn't extremely common.  A textile/lace shop would only have a few pieces of it, some had none at all.  After awhile I started seeing the same design elements in pieces, leading me to believe that the same person(s) created most of the work I found.

My Romanian Point Lace/Macrame Lace/Hungarian Lace Finds--2013

These following two pieces were purchased in completely different areas/shops in Budapest but appear to have the same design elements in both pieces.

Here are some different pieces that I purchased.  The three smaller pieces were of higher quality.