Bobbinlace Exhibition and the 4th European Bobbinlace Competition
Dates: March 16 to April 29, 2011
Sponsor: Associazione per il Museo della Seta di Como
Location: Museo Didattico della Seta
Via Castelnuovo, 9 – 22100 Como – Italy
Tel/Fax: +39 (0) 31 303 180
Email: info@museosetacomo.com
Web site: http://www.museosetacomo.com/eng_attivita_concorsi.php
Exhibition Hours: Tuesday to Friday 9:00-12:00 and 15:00-18:00, Sunday 11:00-18:00
Admission fee: – Individual: € 10.00, Over 65: € 7.00
Students (identification required) and Under 18: € 4.00
Family ticket: parent: € 7.00 child Under 18: € 3.50

The Educational Silk Museum of Como was established in 1990 to highlight the history of the Como silk industry. It has published a number of folders on the technique of various silk bobbinlaces, which can be found on their ‘publications’ page.

Over the years the museum has sponsored several lace-related events, including a biennial bobbinlace competition (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011).  This  year’s event, the “4° Concorso
Europeo per un merletto a fuselli – 2011” is sponsored by the European Parliment. It is open to artists from all  EU countries and Switzerland; entries have been received from the Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, France and Spain. Rules for the event can be viewed here: eng_bando_2011 – entries were due January 28th. The major material for all entries must be silk, and designs based on a silk pattern from a 1940’s wooden printing block. Competition entries and winners can be seen in one section of the exhibition. About 20 lacemaking organizations in the Lombardy area are also displaying their works, with silk materials emphasized. The exhibition theme is “I 150 anni dell’Unità d’Italia 1861-2011, Storia e memoria in terra lariana e lombarda”.  Past contest entries and winners can be by clicking on various years at the bottom of the above web site.

Como is in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy on the border with Switzerland, which includes the city and comune of Cantù. Entries from past years include many laces from this area, as seen in the above photo which shows typical Cantù equipment. Lacemaking centers like Cogne and Tignes are also nearby, but I don’t know if they participate in the exhibition.