Behind the scenes

Love Lace finalists have employed an impressive range of over 60 techniques and 100 different materials to create their extraordinary work. Here we will look behind the scenes to see how artists went about this fascinating process.

Many hours have been spent making the work but don’t forget the creative conceptual work and preparation – also consuming much time and energy. By the time each artist has completed these works, they are no doubt experts in their particular skill.

Traditional techniques have been used in many of the works but when artists play with scale, materials and colour to make new combinations, the work can appear edgy and new.

Needle and bobbin lace are fascinating processes that can be applied to new concepts in 2 and 3 dimensions. Wire features extensively in these lace works.

One of the newer techniques that has been used to great effect with machine stitching and printing, is using a soluble backing to form the work and then dissolving the backing away to leave spaces.

Digital design and making processes have made some of the more dramatic changes in our concept of lace, with three dimensions and highly complex computer modelling and cutting processes. These allow more complex structures to be made. Digital multi media works have pushed the boundaries of lace even further into virtual worlds.

Explanation of Lace Techniques

INTER-LACE: Douglas McManus

This documentary reveals the process of artist Douglas McManus making his artwork for the Love Lace exhibition. Inter-lace is a series of micro documentaries that have been produced for the Powerhouse Museum Love Lace exhibition and reveal stories about five artists that entered the Love Lace com[...]

INTER-LACE: Helen Pynor

This documentary reveals the process of artist Helen Pynor making her artwork for the Love Lace exhibition. Inter-lace is a series of micro documentaries that have been produced for the Powerhouse Museum Love Lace exhibition and reveal stories about five artists that entered the Love Lace competi[...]

INTER-LACE: Ingrid Morley

This documentary reveals the process of artist Ingrid Morley making her artwork for the Love Lace exhibition. Inter-lace is a series of micro documentaries that have been produced for the Powerhouse Museum Love Lace exhibition and reveal stories about five artists that entered the Love Lace compe[...]

INTER-LACE: Mavis Warrngilna Ganambarr

This documentary reveals the process of artist Mavis Warrngilna Ganambarr making her artwork for the Love Lace exhibition. Inter-lace is a series of micro documentaries that have been produced for the Powerhouse Museum Love Lace exhibition and reveal stories about five artists that entered the Lo[...]

INTER-LACE: Toni Maticevski

This documentary reveals the process of artist Toni Maticevski making his artwork for the Love Lace exhibition. Inter-lace is a series of micro documentaries that have been produced for the Powerhouse Museum Love Lace exhibition and reveal stories about five artists that entered the Love Lace com[...]

Alice Vokac: bobbin lace

Alice Vokac is an expert bobbin lace maker who works on a padded pillow with fine linen threads. Vokac progressively pins her work onto a design that she creates herself on paper. The use of bobbins is more complex than you might imagine, as the threads need to be organised in numbers of pairs so[...]

Andrea Eimke: machine-embroidered tapa

Through textiles, Andrea Eimke explores the space between cultures. A German national who has made her home in the Cook Islands, Eimke set up the Atiu Fibre Arts Studio in 1986 to help revitalise traditional Polynesian textile and fibre arts. Eimke sees several parallels between lace and tapa bark c[...]

Anne Mondro: crocheted wire

A speech impediment as a child led Anne Mondro to discover that art was a rewarding outlet for feelings she was unable to express in words. Now a mixed-media sculpture artist, Mondro also teaches at the University of Michigan School of Art and Design. Her work interrogates the human need for artisti[...]

Artist talk: Janet Echelman

Love Lace artist Janet Echelman talking about her work Tsunami 1.26 at the Powerhouse Museum, 22 September 2011.

Artist video case study: Shane Waltener

Relevant for students of Visual Arts, Design & Technology, Textiles Technology and Textiles & Design This video case study features UK based artist Shane Waltener, whose work Another World Wide Web (2011) is featured in the Love Lace exhibition. It has been developed to provide students with [...]

Douglas McManus: printed plastic lace

Douglas McManus has remained a non-conformist throughout his long career, exploring the frontiers of his speciality, textile printing, to produce both commercial and conceptual works. Douglas has been a major contributor to the development of Australian printed textiles both as a practitioner, teach[...]

Explanation of Lace Techniques

BRAIDING: A Braid (or Plait) is a complex structure formed by intertwining three or more strands of flexible material into a repeated pattern. A braid is usually long and narrow, with each component strand zigzagging forward through the overlapping mass of the others. DEVORE ETCHING: Devore is [...]

Helen Pynor: hand-knitted hair

Helen Pynor originally trained as a biologist and these skills and interests inform her practice as a professional artist. Her work explores questions of memory, legacy and the biological body. Now based in London, she recently completed a doctoral thesis at Sydney College of the Arts, highlighting [...]

Ingrid Morley: plasma-cut steel

Ingrid Morley is a Sydney-based conceptual artist and teacher with considerable expertise in metalwork. Morley’s science background, in her native South Africa, has equipped her with a fearless approach to industrial materials and processes. Morley has explored and mastered the task of transformin[...]

Installation of Punto in Aria (Powerhouse construction)

A video of the installation of Olivia Valentine's work Punto in Aria (Powerhouse Window Construction).

Interview with Andrea Eimke

Love Lace artist Andrea Eimke talks about her work, Third Space II.

Interview with Durbach Block

Interview with Neil Durbach & Camilla Block, designers of the Love Lace exhibition.

Interview with Elise Benjamin

Love Lace artist Elise Benjamin talks about her work, Cheongsam.

Interview with Janet Echelman

Love Lace artist Janet Echelman talks about her work, Tsunami 1.26.

Interview with Lauran Sundin

Artist Lauran Sundin talks to Love Lace curator Lindie Ward about her work, Typhoon Neckpiece.

Interview with Michael Snape

Love Lace artist Michael Snape talks about his work, Bowl.

Interview with Shane Waltener

Love Lace artist Shane Waltener talks about his work, Another World Wide Web (2011).

Interview with Ulrika Berge

Love Lace artist Ulrika Berge talks about her work, To Open Up.

Janet Echelman Tsunami 1.26 Installation Slideshow

Still image slideshow of the installation of Janet Echelman's Tsunami 1.26 on George St, Sydney; 19 - 23 September 2011. Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski. Music 'Stand Alone' by lukhash.com

Lenka Suchanek: bobbin lace

Lenka Suchanek is an artist and lace designer who first learned to make lace at school in her native Czechoslovakia, a country renowned for its contemporary lace design. Her work has been informed and refined by the study of historical lace techniques as well as patterns in publications and museums [...]

Love Lace Unveiled

Behind the scenes of the unpacking of objects for the Love Lace Exhibition.

Love Lace: Work in progress

Images of the creation of some of the pieces in the Love Lace Exhibition.

Mavis Ganambarr and Koskela: dyed and woven pandanus

Mavis Ganambarr is one of Australia’s leading fibre artists. She began weaving under the watchful eye of her grandmother and aunties on Elcho Island, off the coast of north-east Arnhem Land, absorbing the knowledge of generations of Yolngu people. Arnhem Land has a long tradition of fine weaving, [...]

Meghan Price: water-jet cut steel

Meghan Price graduated from the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles and is a practicing artist, textile designer and teacher at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Price is also a partner in a textile research and design studio, String Theory, for which she produces jacquard wove[...]

Robin Wells: acid-resist metalwork

In design, simplicity is often a complicated achievement. In the case of jewellery by Robin Wells, elegant simplicity is borne out of a sound knowledge of the medium. Wells studied metalsmithing, jewellery and three-dimensional design at Perth’s Curtin University followed by further studies in gem[...]

The making of 'Tribe'

(from Vimeo) Tribe is a sculpture made from hand made lace and bronze figures. The work was made by artist Kim Lieberman and lace making expert Janis Savage in 2010. [...] The lace 'ground' used is called 'chaotic' or 'wild' ground. In the video one can see in detail the sequence the bob[...]

Time Lapse: Tsunami 1.26

A time lapse video of the installation of Janet Echelman's Tsunami 1.26 on George St, Sydney; 19 - 23 September 2011. Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski. Time lapse by Leonie Jones. Music 'Dream On' by Manolo Camp

Toni Maticevski: bias-cut silk chiffon

Celebrated for his dramatic couture gowns, Toni Maticevski has been a shining light of the Australian fashion industry for over a decade. He first attracted attention in 1997, graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology as student designer of the year. From there he headed to New Yor[...]