Burano lace makers. According to an ancient legend, one day a fisherman in love with his girlfriend managed to resist the lure of the song of the Sirens.
The Queen of the Sirens rewarded the fisherman by creating a foam on his boat from which the design of the wedding veil was born.
On his return he gave his girlfriend an identical veil and so the envious girls tried to imitate him trying to sew the same thing for their wedding.
In ancient times, more than five steps were required to make a lace, which are still made by five people today. Each lace maker was assigned the passage she was good at (even if she knew all the points), so that the job was as profitable as possible, as it was a piecework job.
There were the ladies responsible for the designs, others the neckline, that is the passage in which the lace design is fixed on the layers of fabric and paper; it served as a weft on which the first lace-maker, after the fabric had been attached to the lace cushion, performed the “ghipur” or “punto Burano” (the Burano stitch) over the whole design. Then the other lace makers made the “bars”, the “net stitch” and finally the relief that emphasized the size. Lastly, the lace was pinched from the paper by cutting all the seams and all unnecessary threads were carefully removed with tweezers.
In the early 1900s lace was made by fewer ladies than in 1500, because the girls found work in the “Muranos conterie” and in small Venetian tailoring workshops, where they earned more money.
Photos by Fabrizio Fiorenzano
Text by Isola di Burano
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