Uncategorized – Tarmo Thorström, a Lace Artist from Finland

I was delighted to be invited to Headford in Ireland to lead a community based public artwork. To be more precise, the purpose was to update the artwork, or relace as we called it.

Headford Lace Project (HLP) is a voluntary community initiative established to research, revive, and reimagine the lacemaking heritage of Headford, County Galway, a town in the west of Ireland whose lace industry originated c.1766. We achieve our objectives through workshops, demonstrations, community collaborations, and events that inspire.

During the relatively short period of time, I must say that HLP has done a lot.

Lace Matrix 2021. Courtesy of Headford Lace Project

2021 was the year that the Lace Matrix project with Róisín de Buitléar was finally installed in St. George’s Square, Headford. It was a long journey but we are really pleased that the finished piece is now safely in its forever home. It was fascinating to see the project progress from an idea on paper to a completed physical work that showcases the best of Headford.

To know the full story I strongly advice to read https://www.headfordlaceproject.ie/reimagine/101-lace-matrix

The story in a nutshell is that visual artist Róisín de Buitléar designed the concept that included a heart-shaped iron frame that would be filled with bobbin lace. The frame is the permanent part of the installation but the lace would be renewed from time to time. Local blacksmith Pat Monaghan made the frame and HLP’s lace tutor Jackie Magnin guided the community to make the first Lace Matrix.

For the second iteration of Lace Matrix, HLP asked me to be leading the process.

So, in June 2024 I traveled to Headford with 19 kg of braided polyester cord (made in Finland BTW!) and few ideas of what we could do. My idea was to go there with only a vague idea in order to truly take the community along in the design process. After arrival I presented my ideas and was very happy as the community decided to proceed with the idea I liked the most.

The idea came from the most common topic in the world: weather. Though not just any weather, but the Irish and the extreme. Ireland can be considered sort-of-a breakwater from Atlantic to Europe. If one looks at the weather satellites it can be seen that, considering weather, it is also quite often a vortex for the winds. These whirling masses of air and rain create what we know as the Irish weather.

Headford lace, as basically most of the laces around the world anyway, are a result of culture travelling back and forth. Just like culture, weather knows no country borders. Air particles travel here and there and occasionally vortexes drastically accelerate this mixing. So have the lacemaking patterns, techniques and traditions too mixed up throughout the centuries. The culture is universal, though it always has a local level too. Just like drawing air from the northern Europe, Headford Lace Project attracted me, a Finnish lace artist to mix up Irish lace scene. And afterwards, I will take influence from Headford, not only to remix again in Finland but also everywhere I go. The interaction is neverending.

Lace Matrix has the shape of a heart. On the surface it can symbolize love, affection and passion, but also a pulse, heartbeat on an abstract level. From weather talk, we can widen up the interpretation to say we are living now within a heartbeat. The pulse can also cover the critical times humanity and the Earth are currently going through. The passing between two heartbeats in one person’s lifetime is similar in scale to Mankind’s influence within the timeline of Earth. Within a tremendously short time humanity has altered the conditions for life. Climate change has increased and will continue increasing the frequency of extreme weather phenomena.

Satellite wind map of Storm Barra on December 7th 2021, courtesy of weatherandradar.co.uk

Lace Matrix was finished on 21st November 2021. Only a couple weeks later in December, Ireland was hit by a weatherbomb, Storm Barra’s explosive cyclogenesis. It brought damaging wind gusts over 120km/h and caused floods, power cuts and disruption to travel as well as damage to property and trees across Ireland. Many things got destroyed, but the heart-shaped Lace Matrix, an artwork done by a group of dedicated and passionate people, persevered. Headford lacemaking has seen war, famine and industrialisation. Despite all the difficulties, resilient lace has endured and is still there.

The Lace Matrix 2024 – Cyclogenesis is inspired by the satellite wind maps of Storm Barra on 7th December 2021.

Tarmo and almost finished Cyclogenesis (202 cord ends to be finished). Photo: Aengus McMahon Photography

I am not only utterly astonished of the outcome we did together, but also the community’s commitment and passion to the project (and by project I don’t mean only what I was leading but the HLP in total). I have done community art projects before but never anything like this. The experience was very enlightening and educative to me.

To satisfy the curiosity of the global lacemaker community, I will here describe the process of making this XL sized bobbin lace.

I have long been fascinated by the satellite weather maps. Ages ago I have noticed that on the west of Ireland it is quite common that the differences in pressure and temperature create air vortexes. Due to this stroms are more common there than in Finland where I live. This lead me to study storms. By chance I noticed that Lace Matrix and a storm called Barra were chronologically close together. When I saw the wind map of Storm Barra I knew that this could end up in something interesting. A little of photoshopping and my hunch got a visual confirmation of what could be the general design of the relacing.

So, in the design workshop together with the community we placed the (grayscaled) wind map to the heart matrix and started tracing lines between the wind areas. After marking seven different areas and the location of Headford we decided what grounds to use in each area. And to the location of Headford we would make a spider.

As the community had already done once this kind of bobbin lace making project they had prepared the boards that would be placed behind the heart frame. This saved us precious time and allowed me to finalize the design matching with real nail holes within the boards.

On Thursday June 27th we started making the lace. Within only four days we managed to finish the lace making. On Monday July 1st we finished the cord ends. Hand sweing 202 cord ends is not a small work but together we made it in less than the hours of one workday. In the evening of the same day we had a small publishing ceremony where I got the honor of ceremonially cut the blue and white ribbons attached to the artwork.

I want to express my gratitude to everyone participating in the creation of this artwork! Thanks to the HLP’s excellent bookkeeping I had the convenience to get the list from them:

Original Lace Matrix Concept and Design by Róisín de Buitléar. Construction by Forge metal works. Cyclogenesis design by Tarmo Thorström

Lacemaking Legends

Ann Johansson, Anne O’Hara Quinn, Cait Mcmahon, Colette Kelly, Cindy O’Connor, Eilís Nic Dhonncha, Elizabeth Dargie, Elizabeth O’Connor, Ester Kiely, Fiachra Ó Broin, Giulliana Victor Harte, Gráinne Ní Bhroin, Jackie Magnin, Mari Moran, Marina Postir, Norma Owens, Tarmo Thorström

Have a go Heroes – who contributed a few stitches with support.

Aengus Mc Mahon, Aígréne Harttung-McCabe, Arlene Cloud, Dr Brega Webb, Bríd Ní Chába, Chloe Fitzpatrick, Cian Murphy, Daire Nic Chába, Daniel Fitzpatrick, Dolores Kyne, Eimear Nic Chába, Elizabeth Azevedo, Ella Fitzpatrick, Emily Geraghty, Fionn Ó Broin, Fran Breeveld, Ger Henry Hassett, Karolina Jaglowska, Liam Collins-Jones, Mary Comber, Mary Jo Murphy, Garda Michael O’Malley, Niamh Monaghan, Selma Makela, Sophie Fitzpatrick, Teresa Eagleton, Tina from Westport.

Superhero Sewists

Anne O’Hara Quinn, Dolores Kyne, Eilís Nic Dhonncha Ger Henry Hassett, Mary Comber, Tarmo Thorström

Technical and Moral Support – from drilling holes to helping raise and lower the boards, to supplying just the right thing at the right moment and plenty of jobs in between.

Aengus Mc Mahon, Cllr Andrew Reddington, Deirdre King, Ferg Hassett, Fionn Ó Broin, Marcus Byrne, Mardalena Krasniqi, Cllr Mary Hoade, Members of Headford Mens Shed, Michael Harte, Noreen Fitzpatrick, Pat Monaghan, Teresa Eagleton, Theresa Kelly.

* * *

[ 2024-07-21 ] An addition to post due to requests in social media:

New pairs were added to picots by using the cow hitch, which is also called the lark's head. It is a hitch knot used to attach a rope to an object. It is used also in macrame as a starting knot. Behind the cords can be seen the pattern drawn on the board.

When a pair met the border it was attached to the picot as follows: one cord was looped through the picot and the other was put through this loop. After this both cords were tightened to get good tension.

Dieppe ground turning into roseground.

Grounds: torchon ground with a hole, honeycomb ground and roseground.

A detail of the finished lace.

cords to be cut, knotted and then finished by hand-sewing.

In Rauma, lace is an everyday occurrence for many people throughout the year, but in public it is mainly seen once a year, during the Rauma Lace Week, of course. For years, I have been arguing that lace should become more of a year-round event, a phenomena. Often the best way to bring about change is to be the change you want to see. For this reason, I rolled up my sleeves and decided to put on a mini exhibition in the middle of winter to counterbalance the summer and Lace Week.

Initially, however, the “excuse” for the exhibition was my 40th birthday in the end of last December. I wanted to celebrate this milestone in some way and I thought an exhibition would be a good way to do it. Soon, however, while planning the content of the exhibition, I realised that the exhibition was in fact the answer to what I had been loudly proclaiming for a long time: to get more lace into everyday life and out in the open. The theme of the exhibition was lace in Rauma’s public art.

The story of lace in public art in Rauma starts practically from 1976 with the publication of Kauko Räike’s Lacemaker statue. The new main library in 2003 brought a fresh transition to the new millennium with its lace-embellished glass elements. The works created since then, both temporary and permanent, have largely been my handiwork.

Although the content of the mini exhibition focuses on my own work – in the absence of works by others – I am not the subject of the exhibition. I want to positively provoke other people to bring lace out to the open. At the same time, however, the viewer can see that through my own activities I have been working for many years for the cause I have been preaching.

The miniature exhibition is mainly based on posters. But there are a few objects on display, including a brand new piece made for the new Kari Campus. The theme for the campus art project was Väylä (‘fairway/lane/passage/way’), from which I drew my own interpretation. The title of my artpiece contains the coordinates and the radius of the circle that make up a sea area, or rather a seabed and a nautical chart within the artpiece. The lace topographically follows the shapes of the seabed in question. The work will be placed in the staff offices in the Kari Campus, which makes it questionable whether it can be considered public art. I wanted to display the work in this context precisely because, once the campus is completed, few people will have the opportunity to see it. After all it is made with public money from the tax payers, so I think it is fair to give the public a chance to see it.

The miniature exhibition is on display in the exhibition window of Silmäoptikot Palmu, Kuninkaankatu 10, Rauma, Finland. The exhibition will be open until at least the end of February.

Within the following weeks I will little by little post content of the exhibition so that the audience outside of Rauma has a chance to see what is lace in public art in the town of Rauma.

Category: Uncategorized

Cyclogenesis – A process description

Miniature exhibition of public lace art of Rauma town

Hello world!