Janice wrote: >But do you use a hitch to keep the wire on the bobbin, if not, what stops it >undoing?
I use a half-hitch on the doublehead. Also, I tension by holding the wire, not the bobbin, so I don't put much tension on the hitch. Tamara wrote: >I trust your judgement much more than I would mine You should trust your own judgment, or your own experience. Try things out on a small scale--a little wire bandage, a small strip of ground, to find what works for *you*, before starting on a larger project. The practice will save lots of annoyance later! Also it will help you decide if your pattern is at the right size or needs to be made a little larger or smaller before you go to all the effort of making the pricking. >What's easier to work with: a single strand of thicker wire, or a >double strand of thinner one? Especially if using ordinary, unmodified >bobbins and hitching the wire instead? For gimps I would say they are about even, but a multi-strand gimp is easier to finish off smoothly (though thicker wire comes in more colors, usually!). When I use a thick wire as a gimp I usually cut a length not much longer than I need and work it without a bobbin--it's true that thicker wire doesn't wind well on a bobbin. The single thick wire gives a sturdier feel on an outside edge (I like to incorporate a 22 gauge wire as part of the framework) but multiple strands can do sharp bends more more easily. >You mentioned you used 34 wire. Was that a single strand? Yes, I've always used single strands for everything except gimps. > >They have 36 gauge also, in some colours... Can *that* be used in the >same patterns as 34? Yes. Of course you can also adjust the size of a pattern. The biggest effect wire gauge has on a pattern is in the cloth stitch--patterns that are mostly braiding are much more flexible about what wire you can use. Cloth stitch can't be compressed if your wire is too thick for the pricking but looks feeble if the wire is much too fine. >How does www.wires.co.uk> wire compare with Artistic Wire for ease of working? Must admit I haven't used any yet--I just received some. I will report back to Arachne when I've had a chance to try it. Jan Gardiner of Lacewing Designs uses their 0.2 mm (roughly 32 gauge) wire herself and recommends it to her students. Janice Blair wrote: > >> It would be interesting to see how the different wire sizes compare >> with threads so that we would know what wire to use with existing >> prickings. One thing I discovered by trial and error at Ulrike Lohr's Mechlin workshop is that 0.1 mm wire (38 gauge) works perfectly for prickings she considers suitable for eg. cotton 80. On the other hand I had to enlarge her butterfly pricking to 150% to work it with 34 gauge wire instead of the Pipers silk she uses for those patterns. Also, the Pipers silk compresses very well when several strands are worked as one; wire doesn't compress at all, so some of the tricks she uses in the butterflies have to be done another way in wire. When I get a chance I will try to measure my prickings at the scales I find work best with the various gauges and post the results to Arachne. Happy experimenting, Sue. Susan Lambiris Raleigh, NC [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
