Hi My training is in physics, I have teacher training and taught science and maths. After starting a family I went into teaching adults crafts, eventually specialising in lacemaking and through a series of events and with a lot of encouragement from friends wrote a book on lace, that’s another story.
When I started lacemaking there were very few books and very few lacemakers passing on their knowledge so I had to research everything I did. The lack of written information was also a spur to continue writing books. I have just completed my ninth and it will go to print this week, I am now self-publishing. Publishing is not the same as it was in the 1980s when my first book came out. That one was written by hand five times; there were no home computers. My next book was written using an electronic typewriter with a memory and I bought one of the first Amstrads just after starting writing a dictionary of lacemaking terms. It took five minutes to save a file but was wonderful for cross referencing. A have just competed my 9th book and have no plans for another, but who knows the future. I am still teaching lacemaking, demonstrating and giving talks. My lace has been on exhibition in about 8 countries and I have taught at lace conventions in Australia and USA as well as at home in UK. I started the British Lace Guild Logbook Scheme and assisted the US lace guild writing their teachers’ training program. I am currently assisting another lacemaker by email to self-publish her out of print book using Open Office Writer. She is not familiar with the program and is having to convert the format to A4 with many diagrams and without changing the pagination; there is a large index that she does not wish to redo. It is proving quite a challenge. I am a silver surfer with no plans to put my feet up and retire. Best wishes to all the team, looking forward to being able to help. Alex (Alexandra Stillwell, you can see some of my lace and books on www.alexstillwell.wordpress.com )
