There are many crafts who have made the journey from employment with its associated training to a hobby with groups of likeminded people gathering and sharing their knowledge. I suspect that many of us have multiple interests in this way.
Guilds come together because of an existing interest rather than generating said interest. They certainly help to spread the word and provide learning opportunities. I don’t know the history of the IOLI. Presumably it didn’t just appear from nowhere. Who were its founders? Where did they meet and how? How did their smaller groups start? Do those groups still exist? They may have changed names and/or locations. It would be interesting to trace it to its source(s) rather like exploring a major river. That would provide plenty of opportunity to research the spread of lace interest throughout the USA. It would also have many fascinating links to Europe, I suspect. My C$0.02. > On Jun 17, 2018, at 09:41, Devon Thein <[email protected]> wrote: > > The International Organization of Lace dates its start to 1953. I just > looked up The Lace Guild. It seems it was established in 1976. > > Would it be true to say that the International Organization of Lace, > Inc is the oldest continuing lace group? - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
