The Lace Bike - a tribute to craftsmanship and my family

My roots are at the Erz Mountains where I was born and grew up. It`s a region with a lot of tradition and craftsmanship. My great grandfather was a blacksmith and I kept some of his tools which are now more than one hundred year old.

My grandfather was a seaman in the German marine and also worked as a miner. Mining in the Erz Mountains is connected to a lot of traditional crafts such as woodworking and lacing. My farther was an engineer by profession but also a talented woodworker and painter. My Grandma was talented in knitting and sewing. All those people inspired me and imparted their knowledge to me.

At the beginning of December a client came to me with a special request. He told me his wife worked in a factory which produced laces. He brought a carbon frame set and also some of the original lace his wife had done at work. His wish was to include the lace into a design for the frame. It was supposed to be a special present.

A lot of emotions were connected to his request and also to the paintjob. It reminded me of all the crafts, people working with their hands and also of my family members that passed away.

Art is an emotional thing, as is the craft I do. From the first moment I was completely into this idea and tried to figure out how to personalize this design as much as possible. I included her signature on the top tube and used the original lace as a stencil for a special carbon structure. The flowers of this lace are now embedded into the carbon structure all over the frame. The main part of the design is white lace I created out of my mind and transfered it with a stencil in white on the front section of the frame and fork.

It took me days to produce and transfer this structure onto the tubes and the idea behind this design touched my heart. For my client it is an emotional piece and for me a tribute to tradition and handcraft that was alive through all the generations of my family.

Those before me are gone and I`m the last link in the chain. I`m proud to be one of them and proud to have the chance of doing things like this.

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