![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-137o0Y8e6GQ/UZ1UJ9k-woI/AAAAAAAABb0/xm7omNUlKBs/s320/Mary_Cassatt_XX_Spanish_Dancer_Wearing_a_Lace_Mantilla_1873.jpg) |
Spanish Dancer Wearing a Lace Mantilla by Mary Cassatt |
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One day in Barcelona on my way to somewhere else, I passed a little shop where women were gathered around a table making lace. It was the Escola de Puntaires de
Barcelona, a school that teaches the centuries'-old art of lace-making with bobbins in a style specific to the region of Catalonia.
(Here's the link to their Facebook page.) To the left is a painting by Mary Cassatt featuring a Spanish mantilla or veil, a traditional item of clothing that is often thrown over the top of a tall comb called a peineta.
I found a
link to an informative website on Spanish lace making that includes a remarkable "old timey" video in Spanish about lace. And here's another link to information about Spanish lace
written by the lace-making expert Carolina de la Guardia. Additional internet searches for Catalonia lace show that clothing designer Calvin Klein has used it to decorate a line of women's underwear.
The women making lace at Escola de Puntaires welcomed me into their shop. I, with my limited Spanish, and they, with their
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lRmx-QG7d4Q/UZ1OO7CmhYI/AAAAAAAABbM/poJ8PbUojRQ/s200/P4300063.JPG)
limited English, managed to communicate friendship and mutual joy in the creation of beautiful objects.
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