On Dec 2, 2004, at 17:36, Janice Blair wrote:
I decided to do something simple on my mailing tag. I made my initial "J" in a tape lace.
My own very first thought was a T, but...
Years and years ago - at least 7 or 8 - I started to design an alphabet. After a couple of years of trial and error (mostly error; some of you have initials made in that period), I came up with a "formula": a uniform (same size and shape), oval, lace frame (Deborah Robinson - the Editor of Lace - trued it for me on the puter), containing a tape initial, in flowing script. Because of the uniform size, I can use the same thread always, and have used Madeira 50/2. Each initial is decorated with "flowering vines" made of plaits and tallies (two pairs permit two colours - one for leaves and one for flowers), and each has a spider web somewhere, connecting the initial to the "frame" where the flowering vines fail to. I think a few of you - Jacquiest Southworth, Jane Partridge and Jane Viking - may have intitials made in that period. The last addition was a bead for a spider in the web - I think only Pam Dotson's daughter Sarah got that one.
I have, by now, re-drafted most of the original initials to fit into this standard frame. All that's necessary to spell "LACE" was a priority (some of you may have seen it at the OIDFA Congress in Prague), but B, D, I, J, and S are in good shape also (I designed them as I needed them), and N might be bullied into compliance if I ever got the time to really apply myself.
I got terminally stuck on T... :) Of course, I wanted to design it early on, for myself... But the others were easier, being a single stroke/line (you hang in once, and get rid of the lot once - the way I like it <g>). I've been quite clever sometimes in managing to do this (A is a masterpiece of ingenuity in that respect, IMO <g>). Can't figure out a way to do it with a T. But, worse than that... Can't decide *which* script to use for T - the one where the downstroke curls to the left at the bottom (the kind I grew up with) or the "old" one, where it curls to the right (very pretty, but, do I think it's pretty only because it's novel to me?)
So there we are... 7 or 8 yrs later, and I'm still the "donkey at the troughs" (hay in one, oats in the other, and the beast dies of hunger, because of indecision) :) I was really frustrated, when I first heard about the census, and had another "go" at the T. But, T will be T, and unruly/incorrigible, always :)
Now, I think it was "meant"; I was waiting for Rosa Libre to come along, obviously. The first element (flower, around which everything else revolves) is 4/5th done. It'll be finished tomorrow, and I'll need to choose my colours for the dragonfly (the second "anchoring" element). Easy enough in itself, but it'll have to harmonize with two other elements (a sprig of thistles and one of seed-pods), as well as with the flower, and, with some colours (surely *the* choice ones; grass is always greener on the other side <g>) on back-order and not promised till January, it'll be a tough decision...
Naturally, all the very carefully chosen *and matched* colours in Gutermann silk 100/3 had to be ditched - between the scale (reduced from Colcoton 34/2) and the way Gutermann slides and compresses, I was going 'round the bend, trying to make the necessary sewings, so I cut that off first thing this morning.
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
- To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
