A couple of weeks ago I put up a pic of very fine lace of this type, an antique hanky most likely. In my recent trp up to Paraguay I searched but could not find except in museums, anything of equivalent fine standard. As this pic shows, the units are made individually using needle lace techniques – this coloured thread is of the coarsest guage we saw – equivalent to about #8 perle perhaps, maybe a bit larger – and some I bought was a lot finer and therefore more exy.
From the one or two pics I saw in travel guides, I really did not think I would like the coloured lace, being more inclined to the traditional beauty of the white or cream; but it is totally beautiful, quite glorious en masse, and when I drag DH back there some time I would like to buy a cloth in full living colour to fit our Aus table, with the extensions in. Well that’s the current theory .
Many of these units are appliqued onto clothing, sometimes set in, although we also saw entire skirts of lace; and in the ministerio de tourismo proudly stands even a Paraguayan national flag, comprising horizontal bands of red, white and blue lace units, with a hand embroidered symbol that sits in the middle of their flag denoting the star, palm and olive branches. 