a common thread

Sybil Argintar Bowers has always been interested in handmade lace, embroidery, and textiles.

Her grandmother, Sylvia Dermer Bergman, originally from Romania, grew up learning the art of creating lace and embroidered linens for the home. When she arrived in this country from Romania in the early part of this century, her first job, along with several of her sisters, was making piece goods for the clothing industry in New York City. Many of the women from Europe were employed in this way because they had learned sewing and textile arts as young girls.

Sylvia passed these traditions as well as her creations on to her two daughters, Annette and Sandra, and to her many granddaughters, including Sybil. Sylvia was skilled in the arts of embroidery, tatting (a technique similar in appearance to crochet, but made using a shuttle rather than a crochet hook), knitting, and sewing. Sylvia hand embroidered table linens, knitted sweaters, and made tatted bedspreads. When Sybil was a young girl, “GaGa” (Sybil’s name for grandma) would make her skirts and dresses, not using a pattern, but just visualizing an idea and deciding she could make it herself. Sybil, too, learned many of these handmade arts, including embroidery and knitting. Perhaps that is why, in the late 1980s, when Sybil first visited Burano, Italy (one of the main lace-making centers of western Europe for several hundred years) she was so instantly attracted to the hand created lace and linens she found there. Her travels in other parts of Europe, including France, Great Britain, and Switzerland, cemented in her mind the idea of one day importing the work of these artisans to the states so others could also appreciate their beauty.

In her travels through the years, Sybil has collected many of these fine quality items for her own home and has spent many years studying and understanding the skill and artistic creativity that goes into their production. Spurred on by approaching middle age, Sybil decided, in 2003, that it was time to see her hobby and lifelong interest become a business reality. She has spent the last year intensively researching and finding women artisans from all over the world who still make lace, cutwork, woven, and embroidered textiles by hand. The result of this research has evolved into the creation of her shop, Merletti (Italian for lace). Research led her to begin importing textile creations not only from western Europe, but also resulted in connections with women’s craft co-operatives in eastern Europe (including her ancestral Romania) and Asia, with items available for purchase through fair trade organizations. Fair trade purchasing directly from the women artisans ensures that the women creating these items are paid a fair wage for their work, which allows the proceeds of their work to directly benefit their families.

One of the women’s craft co-operatives that Sybil imports lace from is the Godavari Delta Women Lace Artisans, located in Narsapur, India on the west bank of the Vasista Godavari River. This area of India has been famous for lacemaking for over one hundred years, with the local women being trained in the use of crocheting fine cotton threads into lace by Irish and Scottish missionaries. Unfortunately, initially the detailed work of these women was not compensated for adequately, with middlemen importers reaping most of the benefits and the artisans only receiving meager wages. One of the lace artisans, Mrs. K. Hemalatha, asked for assistance from the All India Handicrafts Board, who advised her to establish a co-op for the women artisans. This involved many months of meeting with individual artisans to explain to them the benefits of working co-operatively. She was able to get the women to join her as members of the co-operative. After many years of work, on May 19, 1979 the group was registered successfully. There are now more than 600 active members.

Other fair trade groups with work represented in Merletti include WEAVE (Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment), which works with the Karen people in refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border. Due to many human rights abuses through the years, these women too, many of whom are quite skilled in the arts of weaving and embroidery, have had to suffer economic hardship. The WEAVE co-operative markets their work as a means to help support their families. The co-op also provides programs in maternal/child health, child development, and income generation, the sale of their embroideries plays a large part in funding these activities.

Transylvanian Images, in Romania, is another of the craft co-operatives that Sybil works with. These women, too, are highly skilled in the art of hand embroidery, creating table linens, bed linens, and pillows which showcase the folk art images of many eastern European countries. Winding Road Trading Company works with disadvantaged women in Vietnamese villages, again paying fair wages for the highly developed skill of embroidery on hand-woven silk, including the Hmong technique of applique and embroidery. Winding Road Trading Company, like the other co-operatives mentioned here, is a member of the Fair Trade Federation, which ensures that member organizations meet the high standards of quality workmanship and fair wages for artisans.

The main goals of the various craft co-operatives that Sybil imports from include: raising funds required to keep the business going, purchasing raw materials and supplies, providing technical training to members and encouraging self-help for members. The end result is economic and social assistance, fair wages and profits for members, and the overall benefits to the women artisans and their families.
Merletti, Fine Lace and Linens From Around the World, now imports home décor, special occasion, and fashion accent items from France, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Vietnam, India, Thailand, and Romania. Within the shop are examples of crocheted, knitted, bobbin, renaissance and appliqué laces, both antique and newly created; handkerchiefs, embroidered or cutwork pillows, table runners, table cloths and napkins. The common thread, so to speak, is that the items present in the shop must be of a high quality, crafted by hand, and representative of the skill and artistic creativity of textile artisans from around the world. Merletti hopes to foster an appreciation for the creation of hand-crafted textile arts from around the world, and for the artisans who create them. In today’s busy world these items can serve as reminders that home can be a place of refuge and beauty, and that women together can accomplish great things.

Sybil Argintar Bowers was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1957. She strayed from home for a while, beginning in 1968, but moved back permanently in 1985. Today, Sybil is active in two businesses in her mountain home, Bowers Southeastern Preservation, a historic preservation consulting firm, and her latest venture, Merletti.