La Gloria et l'Honore di Ponti Tagliati, E Ponti in Aere, page 2 (recto) 1556

This page, made by Matteo Pagano in the 16th century, is an etching, an early form of printmaking, and comes from a book of lace patterns. The material is paper, but the real story is in the ink. Etching involves coating a metal plate with wax, scratching an image into the wax, and then bathing the plate in acid. The acid bites into the exposed metal, leaving an impression which is then inked and printed. The grid format gives us insight into the labor and structure that underpins lace production. The designs may look elegant, but the work was painstaking, done by skilled laborers, mostly women. This book served as a template for them, part of a broader system of production and consumption. So next time you see lace, think about the collaborative labor behind it, the connection between design, production, and the social lives of objects. It's not just pretty, it's powerful.