2014Ethnological Treasure - Traditional Lacing - First Day Cover

The first lace originates from the Renaissance period, one of the most creative eras in literature and arts. The elementary techniques of making lace are sewing with a needle (lace made by a needle originates form the wider Mediterranean region) and interlacing with the help of a mallet (lace on mallet that had developed in Belgium).
Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the past have decorated clothes and other handicrafts with various lace techniques. One of those techniques is “keranje”, an invaluable artistic value in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Beautiful handicrafts of threaded lace on courts of wealthy nobility patiently have created the best women lace makers; with that lace were decorated borders of clothes, towels, linen and similar things. Firstly, a needle with a hook would make a chain, and then with an ordinary sewing needle threads would be created into chains and knots which would transform the lace into motifs of flowers, fruit, animals and similar. The skills of "keranje“have been past on from generation to generation for centuries, grandmothers and mothers had taught little girls from early childhood this beautiful, but not that simple lace technique. Today, only a small number of women make this kind of lace and that is why it has a special value today because it represents through its beauty a cultural tradition that still lives.