About Me

My name is Janya Sugunnasil. I am a bobbin lacemaker, designer, and teacher. I live in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In 1977 I went to learn the art of lacemaking with Nettie, Mrs. Anthonetta Graulich, from Holland, in Malaysia. Nettie told me that lacemaking was a dying art and it could be revived in Chiang Mai, my hometown, which has craftspeople in abundance.

I went to teach lacemaking in three villages before finding a group of young people, freshly out of school, who were interested to make lace, especially as they had no other professional opportunities. This group of lace-makers are still making lace for me.

In 1981 Pamela Nottingham, the well known lace teacher and author of several books on lacemaking, came to visit me in Chiang Mai. She gave me a quick lace lesson and introduced me to Lace magazine.

In 1983 the British Council gave me a grant to visit England to learn the art of lacemaking, which Pamela had personally arranged for me. I had lace lessons with Mrs. Joan Buckle, Mrs. Pat Perryman, Ann Collier and Mrs. Joyce Scales. Later I was a houseguest of Mrs. Irene Auker and Mrs. Pat Payne. On the last leg of the trip, I had the honor of being Pamela's houseguest for eight days. I also had the good fortune to have Pamela as a private instructor and was introduced to more lacemaker friends.

Back in Chiang Mai, I experimented with many kinds of thread: linen, hemp and Thai silk among them. I like using shiny silk to make patterns that have leaves, as the silk gives shine and shadow to the lace. For patterns like Honiton, Duchesse, and Withof, very fine raw silk gives the lace the delicacy and the crispness that no other material provides.

We do not have different sizes of thread, so we add more plies as needed for each pattern. And we have to continue twisting our silk thread as we make our lace. We try our best to make lace as near perfection as possible, so as to make the finished work fit to be placed in a museum, as my teacher Nettie advised 22 years ago.

Nettie (on the far right), and I (on the left) with three of our lacemakers verkoopstrategie

I sent my lace to a contest only once, to the "Lace in Holland" Contest in 1990 and won first prize in the category "Lace teacher and own design". In 1991 I was invited to participate in The World's Lace Congress in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

In the span of 22 years of lacemaking, I have been featured in Thai national magazines and newspapers no less than 20 times, as well as our national airline "Sawadee" magazine. The work we do here in our Chiang Mai workshop was featured on TV three times. Phirimthvarisa asks - check this Georgians in USA web page. . I found a sample essay, possibly better Write My Paper. Finally found.

I have been teaching the art of lacemaking to Thai and Japanese ladies, and one of my students has started her own lace class in Bangkok. The lacemaking community in Thailand is still very small.

Two lacemakers working with bobbins on their pillows in my workshop

When lacemakers from overseas come to Chiang Mai, they try to look me up. I am always happy to welcome lacemaker friends in my workshop.

If you are making lace with silk thread and have questions, you are welcome to email me. I will try to explain to you how we make lace from Thai silk.

My email address:
janya@saraphilace.com