Who is MANCA

Growing up in the highlands of Western Slovenia, away from all distractions of social city life, Manca (not much unlike Heidi), needed to feed her creativity with constantly exploring hand crafts that were present in the daily farm life. From her parents and grandparents she learned everything from crochet and knitting to basket weaving and carpentry. During entire primary school she was attending also the Lace School in Žiri, which is with its 110 years of operation one of the main centers of lacemaking in the region. Studying product design and architecture in Ljubljana and Barcelona she stepped away from traditional crafts and directed her focus towards contemporary, computer driven methods of design. Besides architectural design she would also create virtual environments for a number of architectural offices, private clients and museums.
After years of successful collaborations in architecture, where she also won numerous awards, Manca became increasingly interested in the connection between architectural space and lace (its appearance and structure, material and decorative possibilities, etc.). Her latest works in spatial lace have received international acclaim and been published worldwide. Currently based in New York, Manca moves easily through several levels of scale in her lace fabrications, from jewelry pieces to large architectural installations.

Why BOBBIN LACE

“I consider lace to be one of the prettiest imitations ever made of the fantasy of nature; lace always evokes for me those incomparable designs which the branches and leaves of trees embroider across the sky, and I do not think that any invention of the human spirit could have a more graceful or precise origin.”

​Coco Chanel

Lace, with its delicate patterns and ethereal quality, has long been revered as a pinnacle of textile artistry. Its origins can be traced back to the 16th century, and yet, lace design remains a vibrant and relevant form of artistic expression in today's world. Creating lace is a labor-intensive process that demands both technical expertise and artistic sensibility. Skilled artisans use various tools, such as bobbins, needles, and pins, to manipulate fine threads into intricate patterns. Each piece of lace often requires countless hours of patient handwork. Lace design, with its intricate beauty and rich history, remains a cornerstone of textile artistry. From its ancient origins to contemporary applications, lace continues to captivate and inspire. With the utilization of new technologies, applications into larger scales, and the use of unexpected materials, we can expect lace to weave its delicate magic for generations to come.

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