Anna Salamone Consoli
American
BiographyRosa Salamone was an unusually gifted practitioner of the form of lace making known as “filet” crochet. Having learned and mastered this art form during her youth in Canicattini Bagni, Sicily, Rosa was forced to discontinue her needlework when she and her family became war refugees. In 1955, they immigrated to the United States. It was only when she and her husband returned to Italy after many years in Hartford raising their family, that Rosa resumed making lace with a tiny crochet hook and even finer thread. Splitting her residence between Europe and the U.S. she completed a personalized heirloom for each of her daughters and grandchildren.
After Rosa was in her eighties and could not make the transatlantic crossing, her daughter Anna Salamone Consoli of Rocky Hill, Connecticut honored her mother’s lifelong desire to have her work exhibited publicly by participating in the first Living Legends project. Anna, who served as principal of Bulkeley High School in Hartford, loaned to the exhibit a filet lace panel made by Rosa for her daughter and with background lace netting completed by Anna.
"She says that in order to make it perfectly square, even though you can't ever get it perfectly square, the tension in your hand has to be just so, and you have to be in control of the thread all the time. And there are a lot of life lessons you can learn from working, that patience really is a virtue, that a big beautiful picture only comes with little stitches, one stitch at a time...So, these are very special lessons for me.
Once my father and she returned to Sicily, I have images of my mother sitting by a very large door that would lead into a courtyard full of her flowers, working with a very fine crocheting hook and extremely fine thread...She has a housekeeper that has really been with our family for as long as I can remember, and my mother decides which pieces the housekeeper will get to do. It's almost to make a class distinction as to which part she does; and the lace around or the something that is monotonous or something really isn't considered the art part of it gets to be done by her.
I remember my daughter sitting with her as a little girl, helping her count the spots that had to be. You know, my mother and her granddaughter would come up with the design. I thought that was very special...Some of the work that she's done for us and for her grandchildren...I got to do the outside, the netting. Now, because she's close to being 80 years old and her eyesight is failing, her pieces have become treasured pieces of art for us. She stopped...making the very large pieces...after she had created a major piece for each of her daughters and for each of the grandchildren. That was her closing statement, I think."
After Rosa was in her eighties and could not make the transatlantic crossing, her daughter Anna Salamone Consoli of Rocky Hill, Connecticut honored her mother’s lifelong desire to have her work exhibited publicly by participating in the first Living Legends project. Anna, who served as principal of Bulkeley High School in Hartford, loaned to the exhibit a filet lace panel made by Rosa for her daughter and with background lace netting completed by Anna.
"She says that in order to make it perfectly square, even though you can't ever get it perfectly square, the tension in your hand has to be just so, and you have to be in control of the thread all the time. And there are a lot of life lessons you can learn from working, that patience really is a virtue, that a big beautiful picture only comes with little stitches, one stitch at a time...So, these are very special lessons for me.
Once my father and she returned to Sicily, I have images of my mother sitting by a very large door that would lead into a courtyard full of her flowers, working with a very fine crocheting hook and extremely fine thread...She has a housekeeper that has really been with our family for as long as I can remember, and my mother decides which pieces the housekeeper will get to do. It's almost to make a class distinction as to which part she does; and the lace around or the something that is monotonous or something really isn't considered the art part of it gets to be done by her.
I remember my daughter sitting with her as a little girl, helping her count the spots that had to be. You know, my mother and her granddaughter would come up with the design. I thought that was very special...Some of the work that she's done for us and for her grandchildren...I got to do the outside, the netting. Now, because she's close to being 80 years old and her eyesight is failing, her pieces have become treasured pieces of art for us. She stopped...making the very large pieces...after she had created a major piece for each of her daughters and for each of the grandchildren. That was her closing statement, I think."
Person TypeIndividual
Mohegan, 1899 - 2005
