Neža Ema Mikec

Neža Mikec, sister Ema, (9 January 1877 – 2 March 1967) was a Slovenian embroiderer. As a member of the School Sisters of Christ the King, she led the convent embroidery workshop in Maribor and, in collaboration with Helena Kottler Vurnik and Ivan Vurnik, she helped shape 20th-century Slovene ecclesiastical textile art. Her mother was the farmer Maria Gričar and her father the farmer Georg Mikec. In Šmihel she also learned embroidery. In 1897 she passed the exam to become a school teacher for lower classes. and her husband, the architect Ivan Vurnik. Works created in collaboration with them, using simple means, achieved an elemental monumentality. The convent embroidery workshop in Maribor continued to operate, but on a much smaller scale. Mikec died on 2 March 1967 in Radovljica.

Selected works Notable works produced in the School Sisters' embroidery workshop under Mikec's direction include: Eagle flags for Teharje (1919), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Chasuble for Selca (1919), after designs by Ivan Vurnik; Canopy for St. Peter's Church in Ljubljana (1921), after designs by Ivan Vurnik; Chasuble for the Jesuit church in Ljubljana (1922), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Chasuble for the golden jubilee Mass of Bishop Anton Bonaventura Jeglič (1923), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Cope of St. Francis for Franc Kimovec (1928; a high point of the appliqué technique), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Altar frontals for Domžale (1928), the Marijanišče in Ljubljana (1932), and the Franciscan church in Maribor (1932), after designs by Ivan Vurnik; Pluvial and veil for Predoslje (1929), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Flags of the Sodality of Our Lady in Ptuj (1930) and Konjice (1931), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Bled church flag (1932), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Flag of the St. Peter's Sodality of Our Lady in Ljubljana (1933), after a design by Slavko Pengov; Flag for the Sodality of Our Lady, Šiška (1933; motif: "the woman clothed with the sun"); after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Flag of the cultural society in Komenda (date not specified), after designs by Ivan Vurnik; Cloaks of the Sacred Heart for Ihan and of Christ the King for Šmartno pri Slovenj Gradcu (date not specified), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Flag of the Sacred Heart Sodality for Cleveland (date not specified), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Chasuble of the Sacred Heart for Kansas City (date not specified), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik; Annunciation of Mary (owned by the Kobi family of Borovnica) (date not specified), after designs by Helena Kottler Vurnik.