In November 2015 the Parpansali park in Rauma got a new public artwork. 'Flight of Fancy' is a collaboration of artists both from USA and Finland. Suzanne Morlock and Glenn Messersmith were RaumArs residency artists working with a local lace artist Tarmo Thorström. In collaboration with them was also workers from Rauman Seudun Katulähetys organization. The artwork deals with the marine history and bobbin lace making traditions in Rauma and was made of steel pipes and aluminium cable wire.

Soon after the artwork was ready it suffered from vandalism as people had hanged in the aluminium cable wire lace. The original plan of the artists was to use fibre ropes for the lace but due to the lack of time and other resources this plan was abandoned. Ropes were changed into aluminium cable wire which was not especially good idea in the end. Cable wires were stiff and that lead to enlarge the scale of lace. As a result from that the lace lost its delicate structure and it was hard to understand that it truly was lace.

In the summer 2017 Thorström started the work to renew the artwork by replacing the metal lace with rope lace. He started to make a new lace from thick jute rope. For this he had to acquire few kilometers of rope and make the biggest bobbin lace making surface. His work was interrupted as he moved to St. Petersburg (RUS) to work as a class teacher in a Finnish school. In January 2020 he transported the unfinished work to Russia and continued the work. For six months we was making the gigantic torchon lace in the loft of the Church of the Holy Mary in the center of St. Petersburg.

When the 35 square meter rope lace was ready Thorström transported it to Rauma and in July 2020 he continued to work on it by saturating it with a mixture of tar and turpentine. In the old sailing ships this treatment was commong to give the ropes protection against the harsh weather. After the saturated lace was dried it was lifted on its place with a crane and the old aluminium cable wire lace was removed.

The renewed artwork was ready just before the 50th Rauma Lace Week. Unfortunately it was the time of Covid-19 pandemic so the lace festival could not be celebrated in an ordinary way. Luckily Flight of Fancy could patch up the gap in the Rauma Lace Week in an exceptional way.

Flight of Fancy combines both bobbin lace and marine worlds. According to its name it is a play of thoughts, 'what if' thinking and building of pipe dreams. It is a road of imagination where the thoughts sail towards the vast sea of dreams regardless of any lateral or cardinal guides.

– Tarmo Thorström