Digitisation of Lace Catalogues and Patterns at the Idrija Municipal Museum and Lace School
Authors: Gnezda Bogataj Mirjam , Grbec Tedy 
Published: August 2023

EXTENDED ABSTRACT:The collection of lace at the Idrija Municipal Museum comprises lace, sales catalogues, patterns, accessories and materials as well as textiles with lace. Sales catalogues with lace samples are an important source of information to research the development of the Idrija lace and to provide a historical overview of lace making in the region of Idrija. They offer information on different patterns, motives, techniques and elements, as well as the form and size of the lace and their applicability etc. The greatest number of catalogues was owned by the Franc Lapajne firm playing a leading role in the Idrija lace market since 1990’s. One of the biggest collections of lace patterns is the one owned by Zorka Rupnik comprising 3,797 patterns of Indian ink drawings on tracing paper. Zorka Rupnik was the most important local lace pattern designer after World War Two; she was employed in the enterprise Lace and had a great impact on the present day lace design. Furthermore, the Idrija Lace School keeps a collection of patterns designed on tracing paper and used for educational purposes. Patterns are copied by using the blue print technique which might cause damage even when they are handled with care. This is the reason why the technique is being abandoned. Owing to the authenticity, age and sensitivity of the collection the museum and the school decided on digitisation of lace pattern collections in cooperation with the company Digitalizacija d.o.o. This was a very demanding process as lace can be treated as 3D objects. To achieve the best results a less conventional method was chosen: the 3D effect was achieved by white light scanning system. The digitisation of patterns followed standard procedures for digitising documents on paper. Special attention was paid to all the errors resulting from the reproduction process. They were eliminated thus facilitating the further replication of lace patterns. The digitisation of prickings might be more complicated as they are perforated, folded, rolled, however, it is one of the future challenges of lace pattern digitisation. In 2009 six sales catalogues of lace patterns from the early 20th century kept by the Idrija Municipal Museum were digitised. In 2011 they were followed by 1.050 patterns of the Zorka Rupnik collection from the second half of 20th century. Thus the originals have been preservedand safely stored in the museum while users can access and browse them with the help of computersin the museum. At the same time a part of the collection of the Lace School was digitised. The school requested to keep the scale factor of the original patterns (scale 1:1) and that necessary metadata were provided. On one hand the originals were preserved while on the other hand the collection was made accessible to children and teachers in dislocated departments of the school. Some questions regarding digitisation of lace patterns are still open:  1. Due to the capacity of the printer, reproduction is limited to A3 paper format.   2. Access to the patterns is limited by copyright rules.   3. How to reproduce – to convert digital objects to material ones (specific requirements for colour persistence, paper hardness).   4. Long-term storage and preservation of digitised materials.