Louise Colgan and Maria Provencher
Bobbin Lace
Louise Colgan Maria Provencher
Louise Colgan
Louise Colgan is a lacemaker, designer, and teacher with experience in a broad range of bobbin lace techniques. As an instructor, she offers classes on an ongoing basis throughout the year and travels extensively around the U.S. to teach seminars and workshops. She has recently completed two years of service as President of the International Old Lacers, Inc. following terms as 1st & 2nd Vice-Presidents and Southwest Regional Director. Louise was Founding Chairperson of the Golden Gate Lacers, a Charter Chapter of I.O.L.I. and is a Past Chairman of the Lace Museum Guild now in Sunnyvale, CA. She has taught bobbin lace workshops at many I.O.L.I. Conventions; Milanese lace classes for U.S. members of O.I.D.F.A.; plus workshops at a variety of regional events including the Great Lakes Lace Group Spring Fling, Pacific Northwest Lace Conference, Winter Lace Conference, Atlanta Chapter Lace Days, Chesapeake Region Lace Guild, Freeway and Hedgehog Lacers, L.A.C.E. in Chicago, Lone Star Lacers of Texas, New England Lace Group, North Carolina Regional Lacers, and the Portland Lace Society.
In her capacity as a lacemaker and designer, Louise has exhibited her work both locally and internationally. Pieces of her lace have been on display at the John Bull Trophy Exhibition in England, recent O.I.D.F.A. Congresses, the Olive Hyde Art Guild Annual Textile Show, and the California State Fair with Best of Class awards. Her designs have been published in the international LACE EXPRESS magazine. Additionally, she has published three books of original patterns and has made an instructional video on Milanese Lace through Hensel Productions.
Maria Provencher
The lacemaking country of Belgium is my birthplace, but my family moved to Canada when I was 4. When I was 8, my parents took us to Belgium for some family bonding and this included a visit to Bruges where I fell in love with bobbin lace. There were, however, no lacemakers in my family and so my desire to learn bobbin lace had to wait. My first lace was tatting, which I learned from my future husband's grandmother at the age of 18.
Some years later, Mieke Kerstra became my first bobbin lace teacher. She had recently immigrated from Holland and had taught at a teacher's college for textiles for many years. Since then, over 30 years have passed and other teachers too numerous to mention have crossed my path, including Lia Baumeister, Ulrike Lohr, Bridget Cook, and Anny Noben Slegers. They have all added something to my continuing love for lace.
It has been my privilege to teach bobbin lace for IOLI and numerous Guilds. These bobbin laces include Rosaline, Russian tape lace, Schneeberger, as well as contemporary pieces including 3D flowers. My students have won numerous prizes at county fairs, and I have had the pleasure of teaching my three children as well as four of my grandchildren the art of bobbin lace making. The students I teach regularly in my home are as young as four and one is over 85.
I was the founding president of the Hedgehog Lace Guild and am currently the President of the White Sage Lace Guild as well as the Freeway lace Guild, which will be hosting the IOLI Convention 2009. Lace making has been my avocation for almost 40 years and I enjoy getting others enthused about lace, especially bobbin lace.
