LIGHT sensitive drawings by artist Sarah Casey go on show at the Bowes Museum next weekend to highlight the internationally significant Blackborne lace collection.

Common Grounds: Lace Drawn from the Everyday will feature drawings of bonnets which bring to light hidden aspects of the collection gifted to the museum in 2006 by descendants of A Blackborne & Co, master lace dealers in 19th century London.

The exhibition in the fashion and textiles gallery opens on Saturday, May 2, and will include other items categorised as the B collection.

Unlike the main collection, which contains some of the finest surviving examples of handmade lace dating from the 16th century, the latter is principally the lace of ordinary people, reworked fragments with the quality uneven.

Some of the fragments on the bonnets are close to 300 years old.

Casey’s exquisite, transparent drawings were inspired after she opened two unsorted trunks of stock from Blackborne’s shop which had lain unexamined and overlooked for 70 years.

She began sorting through bundled together articles, enjoying examining and creating a record of their personal and social history while exploring how drawing can reveal unseen aspects and present it creatively to the public.

She has catalogued every lace bonnet via 54 "hidden" drawings which appear like x-rays or scans, revealed only when held up to the light.

“These form an installation hung in space, recalling domestic washing lines,” she said. “Drawings will appear to light up as viewers circle them.”

This innovative approach seeks to bridge a gap between high art and everyday textiles of ordinary people.

Hannah Jackson, assistant curator of fashion and textiles, said: “This inimitable exhibition brings to life the hidden qualities of our museum’s objects. Sarah Casey’s work captures the beautiful and delicate nature of the everyday. Collaborating with an artist is always a special process as it helps us view objects in new and imaginative ways.”

The drawings will be presented alongside lace bonnets and the carriage trunks in which they were stored, together with some of the bonnets from the main collection which have been recently conserved.

The exhibition runs until June 28 and will include taster workshops.