On Dec 26, 2004, at 5:07, Jean Barrett wrote:
yesterday I finished my version of Lenka's wire 'Paisley' motif which I bought at the NEC this year. I am very pleased with it and have already started a second one, however . . . When I had finished it I realised that because of all of the beads which are added as you go it was now possible to flatten it as usual when it was complete, and I am always amazed at the difference that makes to wire lace. Then `I remembered the horn aficot which I have among my collection of lace tools. I do not make needle lace so it has never been used for it's intended purpose but the curved angled point made it ideal to flatten the narrow, curved braid in the Paisley design. The wires just seem to sit more closely together. The old lace makers knew what they were doing, although I am sure they never envisaged using their tools on wire.
Thanks for the tip! I do not have an afficot (but don't see why a domestic utensil couldn't be used i its place. If people could use crab claws...), and I'm of two minds on how to treat a finished wire-lace project (leave it alone, so that the irregularities offer more facets for the light to bounce off of, or flatten it out to make it resemble thread lace more). But I seem to remember that Lenka also said something about "finishing"... I think it was a roller-pin she said she used :)
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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