Bid to promote lacemaking

The Lace Guild held its annual Lace Day at St James Cavalier, in Valletta yesterday, bringing together lace makers to share their skills and exchange information to promote the craft.

Parliamentary Secretary Edwin Vassallo pointed out that there was a time when the word artiggjanat was not even mentioned in legislation. However, since the establishment of the Malta Crafts Council, which helped the organisation of yesterday's activity, local crafts, including lace, had been promoted.

With the help of the Malta Standards Authority, a lace committee was established to set lace standards and distinguish between local, foreign and machine-made products. "The next step would be to activate the MSA mechanism to establish the standards concerning lacemaking," Mr Vassallo said, adding that it would have to be marketed.

The idea was to help organise more activities for the Lace Guild to bring together lace makers in different localities.