National Museum Western Visayas to hold bobbin lace-making demo-workshop March 28-29

The National Museum of the Philippines will conclude its successful Women’s Month celebration with a bobbin lace-making demonstration, lecture and workshop entitled Knots and Stitches: The Bobbin Lace-making Tradition of Sta. Barbara, Iloilo on March 28-29, 2020 at Gallery 3 of Western Visayas Regional Museum in Iloilo City.

Featuring the bobbin lace-makers of Women United Through Handcrafted Lace and Embroidery (WUTHLE) Livelihood Association, the event aims to raise awareness on lace-making traditions of Iloilo, providing a venue for the culture-bearers to show their craft, and inspire the public to support the painstakingly handmade products.

WUTHLE is a non-government organization composed of women lace-makers and embroiderers who survived leprosy, and their skillful relatives. Presently, it has 30 members with 12 master lace-makers, who are mostly in their senior years and have been with the group for more than 20 years now. The rest are embroiderers and staff who are in charge of WUTHLE Center operations.

In the demo and workshop, master lace-makers Sussana Villan, Teresita Laus and Remy Panes will discuss the basics of lace-making, the materials and stitches used and the making of patterns. The resource speakers will also speak of their experiences as woman lace-makers from how they learned the skill and how it helped their lives.

The sharing of experience of the lace-makers, especially those who survived the stigma attached to persons with leprosy, hopes to inspire the audience to be courageous in facing challenges, to learn lifelong skills be it a hobby or livelihood. It also aims to impart their knowledge and skills to the public to appreciate and take pride of this cultural heritage of Iloilo that invokes both our intangible and tangible practices.

The event will be held in four sessions – AM and PM sessions per day with a maximum of 40 participants per session. Those who want to join must preregister thru email nmiloilo@yahoo.com, phone (033) 327-3782, and our official FB Page:  NM Western Visayas Regional Museum.

WUTHLE started in 1985 in Western Visayas Sanitarium where the Mission Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary held missionary works. Belgian sister Madeleine Dieryck received beautifully embroidered handkerchiefs from two girls who are daughters of sanitarium patients.

Sister Dieryck asked them to embroider more hankies she distributed to their benefactors, and orders started coming in. But those with deformed hands cannot do the needlework, so, she learned lace-making using bobbins in Belgium and taught the skills to the WUTHLE women.

From then, the organization grew and flourished. But when the nuns left and the job orders dwindled, the group survived through the help of the government and private sector.

WUTHLE Center is part of the Iloilo tourism circuit visited by tourists to see how bobbin laces are made. (Maricyn A. De los Santos/NMP WVRM)