I need all fodorite experts out there!

I will be traveling to Germany and Hungary (Budapest) at Christmas time. I am looking
for handmade lace and hand embroidered goods
in both places. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Only seeking very reputable
establishments. Thanks

I'm not sure about Hungary but Germany and the Scandinavian countries have a lot of women who make handmade lace.

The lace is usually sold at fairs or trade shows. I don't know of companies who sell this but maybe.

Certainly there will be lots of lace items during the Christmas markets.

Good luck for your quest.

Blackduff

bloackduff,

Thanks for taking time out to respond.
I certainly will keep the Christmas fair
in mind.

nerd

For Budapest, you may want to try the central market. It's a big indoor market, mostly food stuff on the ground floor, but shops upstairs sell various textile and crafts if I remember it right. We got lovely tableclothes.

ttt

I appreciate the input W9London. I Already added your suggestion to my notebook.

Thanks,
Nerd

Just got back from Budapest and there are lots of hand embroidered goods at the Central Market (note that it is closed on Sunday.)

curious - how does one know if something sold in a market is really hand made?

Well PBob, you can tell if something is made by hand by looking at it, and of course by the price. I met a private textiles dealer from Munich with some astounding items both vintage and modern, with pricetags especially for the laces several times the whole vacation.

The "lace" and "embroidery" I have seen in Germany, Austria and Hungary at tourist-type spots were definitely made by machine...in China. Sorry I can't advise OP about specific stores...if I were serious I'd start my hunt at antique shops.

Handmade lace and fine hand embroidery is dear, to say the least, and a fine art.

could lace-ignorant moi tell the difference. I base this on several trips to Bruges and Gent, both bastions of 'hand-made' lace and i heard that much of the stuff was hand-made on machines in China and that you should get a pedigree attesting to handmade or antique - being 100 years old i guess and then guaranteeably hand made?

Hi PB

>could lace-ignorant moi tell the difference. <

Probably not.

Also note that machine made lace goes back almost 200 years, so antique lace could be machine made.

Ira: don't say that that 'antique lace' i bought in Bruges years ago could have been machine made! Bummer!

Just got back from Budapest: go see the central market. Loads of stuff upstairs. And downstairs in the main aisle two girls were selling the best strudel ever!(poppy seed & cherry filling) Loved Budapest!

My fuzzy understanding of handmade lace involves pinning threads that are wound around many wooden bobbins, very time consuming, and eye-straining. I've seen photos of women sitting outside doing this work on their laps...so I think "hand-made on machines" is an oxymoron. I would imagine the 200-year-old lacemaking machines are hand- or foot-shuttle type of things, a precusor to the electric ones.

As you can see I barely know what I'm talking about. But I would want
first, antique hand-made
second, antique machine-made, and
third, hand-made. Although I have worked on new French machine laces costing few hundred euro per meter that were beautiful. Good lace is valuable.

Hi PB

>don't say that that 'antique lace' i bought in Bruges years ago could have been machine made! Bummer!<

Just because it is machine-made wouldn't make it less of an antique.

Better a good quality machine-made lace than poor quality hand-made.

I buy lace wherever I travel and try to find the local handmade lace also. I'm not so concerned about it being antique but do want it to be handmade. So, I understand your concerns. You are going to need to go to a lacemaking shop, not a tourist type shop that sells keychains, books, and lace. Your chances of getting the handmade lace are far greater. And, not all towns or countries are known for their handmade lace, they have other locally made handcrafts. That's not to say you can't buy beautiful lace there, just know what you are buying.

I was just in Bruges and talked with a lacemaker about his craft. I was really confused about how they could be selling a 7 inch rectanglular (for example) piece of handmade lace for 6 euros. It seemed like it should cost more. I could tell why other pieces were priced higher, usually because they were bobbin lace.

He demonstrated the 2 types of lacemaking and told me about his family's history in lacemaking - he is 4th generation of lace and tapestry makers. There are 2 types of handmade lace - the bobbin lace and needle & thread lace. If you want a recap of what he said, let me know and I'll post it.

After my first experience buying "handmade" lace and realizing when I got home that it was made in China, I was very disappointed in myself. But, I love the lace and the memory of picking it out. So, now, I do look for tags, I look for pin holes, I feel the fabric and I look closely at the pattern or style; and I talk to the shopowner to learn about which is the local "style" or pattern of lace - before I buy it.

Have fun! i would love to go to Germany at Christmastime.

cls, please do explain bobbin and needle/thread lace.

It's too bad you're not going to Belgium-I just got back, and the place to buy the hand-made bobbin lace is Ghent-and the lace shop my friend and I went to, well, my friend got an excellent deal on an approximately two foot long, oval shaped, hand made linen and bobbin lace table topper, originally 160 Euros, but they were having a small sale, it was on the wall, and it was slightly soiled, sooo, it was being sold for 75 Euros. She bought it, took it to her Belgian dry cleaners, and it looks gorgeous-she would NOT get that price elsewhere for such lace work. The shop owner told me that the further north you go in Belgium, the better prices, and more bobbin lace you will see, as it is mostly made in and around Ghent. I did not buy any bobbin lace, but at that same store I did buy some LOVELY hand-embroidered linen napkins, that have a very delicate hand-embroidered flower design in one corner of the napkins-you can choose a different embroidered flower for each napkin-I got 6, with 2 different designs. (but they are so lovely, it's hard for me to think of them being all stained up by people's food stains-yuck!-I think that may not happen-they'll be out on the table for show, and then something more ordinary for actual use.)

For anyone going to Ghent, (and I LOVE GHENT, btw, by far my favorite place in Belgium) the shop is called in Flemish/English "Kloskanthuis HOME LINEN" on the Korenlei. Beautiful local hand-made lace and linen items.

Hi Fidel - I am far from an expert just someone who appreciates the craft and likes learning about it. Here is my elementary understanding:

Bobbin lace is made with pins, a pillow and bobbins of lace. The pins are pushed into the pillow and make the pattern. This is usually the more delicate looking lace but it can also be made with a thicker thread and then it is heavier looking. There are lots of pieces of thread used while making the piece. The piece in progress he showed me at about 24 bobbins. You can see the pin holes on the back if you look closely. It takes 8 years to become a master at this type of lacemaking.

Needle and thread lace is made with a paper pattern, needle and thread. The pattern is drawn on the paper and lace is basically sewn onto the paper, following the pattern. This thread is generally of the thicker kind. There is one piece of thread used making this piece. This takes a year to master.

If the lace is attached to cloth, such as a lace border around a rectangular piece of cloth, then you will want check for the quality of that cloth. It is usually linen and there are different grades of linen. I think you can tell by how soft the fabric is. The more expensive the fabric, the more the piece will cost.

Part of the price of the handmade lace is based the lacemaker's years of experience. So, you can have needle and thread lace by a person with 30 years experience and it will cost more than a similar piece made by a person with 1 year experience.

I purchased a beautiful piece of bobbin lace, about the size of a placement for 45 euro. It was made using thicker threads so it is not delicate looking but the pattern is beautiful. The store was also selling some antique pieces but they were very expensive.

I'm looking forward to my next visit to Belgium and Ghent is on my list of places to vist.