I hope this isn't too long to post, but it has been suggested that
people might want to know just what finger lace is and what our class
in Crete was like.
========================================================
The finger lace class was made up of seventeen students from ten
different countries. We had three teachers, two who spoke no English
and one, much younger, who was the translator and ended up being
everyone's favorite. She never touched our work--the others would
snatch it away and correct the mistakes so speedily that one couldn't
make any sense of what they were doing--and she taught in what I call
American style: mistakes were good to learn from, you could change the
rules if you wanted a different effect, and it was just fine to cheat
if you had to!
We were each given a stout bag containing a pillow (rather like a baby
pillow, quite soft, oddly), scissors, lots of work sheets and
informational material, and several pieces all set up to work on. We
started--oh, so clumsily!--with the basic techniques and shapes used in
traditional Cretan finger lace: the basic line and a rhomboid form
repeated over and over in various combinations. I am still working out
my tension and trying to remember the position of the all-important
"guide" thread. The pillow is so soft that it is hard to get the
tension right: they use pins to hold previous work in place and to give
something to pull against. But a firmer base, as used in other
countries, might make the work better. Or maybe not: practice,
practice, practice!
The macrame directions in the DMC needlework book and in the Anchor
Manual are excellent and are probably the source for Cretan finger lace
(desia or dessies). It is, of course, a near eastern and north African
form of decoration, as one can tell when seeing it in bright color. It
is either worked from the warp ends of finished weaving or made up
separately and added later. They have a small industry in Crete making
just those added-on-later ends, and they can be seen on all the wide
white scarves sold in the tourist shops. Most of these are of
synthetic material, but we found one in embroidered silk which was
lovely.
One of the nicest thing about this work is that it is extremely
portable. The pillow fits nicely on the lap or the tray in an airplane
seat and it is very light and squashable in a suitcase. The samples I
am working on use only a foot or so of each thread--in this case DMC
perle cotton #8--but longer threads can be used, winding them into
"butterflies" to keep them from getting tangled. We started out with a
white sample, then blue, then pink, then blue and white, and finally
two more complicated ones in red and ecru. Believe it or not, we got
through all of these, if only with a single motif or two finished, but
enough to know what we were doing. Working in color is lots of fun and
depends on how the various threads are either used as guides or
wrapping. This is a technique which should make up a nice day's
workshop--we had three and a half days--if there is only one design to
work and with plenty of visual aids and explanatory paper work to take
home.
There is a very good brand new book out now showing many, many
variations on the basic design. It is in Greek, but once one
understands the technique, the pictures tell it all. I was
particularly delighted to meet a charming old lady who is a specialist
in finger lace and who told me that she had worked all the samples in
the book. We were also treated to a superb lace exhibit in Chania
which displayed many, many examples of finger lace, along with bibila,
kopanelli, and some embroidery. Crete is very definitely the
lacemaking capital of Greece!
=====================================================
Tess, happy to be back in cool, rainy, green Maine after the extreme
heat of Greece ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
-
To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
