Lace
Round

Lace is one of those decorative traditions in which absence carries as much weight as material. Its character depends upon openings, gaps and intervals. Remove those spaces and lace stops being lace. The relationship between presence and absence is the design.

Open-weave fabrics make that relationship particularly clear. Threads cross, separate and reconnect, creating a structure that can appear remarkably delicate despite depending upon a precise network of connections. Ornament and construction become almost impossible to separate. What holds the fabric together is also what gives it its identity.

That idea translates naturally into mosaic. Both are assembled from small individual components, yet neither is really understood by concentrating on those components alone. The eye searches for connections and completes the spaces between them. Pattern emerges from the relationship between the occupied and the unoccupied.

The round tessera introduces another useful association. There is none of the hard-edged precision we might expect from conventional geometry. Instead, the individual pieces suggest knots, loops or points of connection. The reference to fabric remains present without attempting to reproduce its texture literally.

Lace also carries considerable decorative history. It can recall clothing, domestic textiles and elaborate interiors, yet the principle behind it remains remarkably contemporary. Negative space has become one of the fundamental tools of modern design, although lace understood its value centuries earlier.

Lace Round brings those two worlds together. A traditional textile language becomes an exploration of connection and openness, where the spaces within the pattern are every bit as important as the material surrounding them.

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