Idrija, 16–18 June 2023
Each year the Festival is accompanied by a unique visual that distils its theme and presents the event to the public. This year the Idrija Tourism Board invited me to design it. The motif was to capture the slogan (R)evolution and the central idea of the festival: the interplay of silk and lace.
I built the concept around the creative path of an original lace piece — from idea and sketch to a precise bobbin-lace pattern and the finished lace. I visualised this “(r)evolution” through the silkworm’s metamorphosis from cocoon to moth. The final image combines the cocoon, the sketch, the lace pattern and the lace I made after that pattern.
I paid special attention to the lace itself, aiming to express the delicacy and refinement associated with Idrija lace; the silkworm moth is the perfect symbol of these qualities. It also stands for the many women who have carried Idrija lace into the world and keep it an important part of Idrija’s identity.
The silkworm-moth lace was bobbined by Milena Kalan Frančeškin using silk prepared by Maja Botulin Vavpotič. In a photograph by Arne Hodalič and Katja Bidovec it even graced the May cover of National Geographic (Slovenian edition) and was part of the festival’s central exhibition The Shine of the Silk Thread.