In early August, Lacemakers from throughout North America gathered at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown St. Paul, MN to teach their craft and show off their work at the 59^th annual International Old Lacemakers, Inc. Convention. Among them was Bloomer’s very own Dagmar Beckel. Originally from Prague, Czech Republic, Beckel has been making lace since she was just 12 years old and later graduated from the School Institute of Art Manufacturing in Prague with a Lacemaker Degree. She was given the honor of teaching at the convention. Of all the numerous kinds of lace in the world, Beckel taught the style she learned in a small Slovakian village when she was a child. “This lace almost became extinct as the patterns were memorized and passed on only from mother to daughter as family heirlooms and were never written down,” she says. “It means a lot to me to be able to share this knowledge.” Beckel now runs Beckelace Studio, a lace studio based in Bloomer.