In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> , Shere'e <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >I had one person >tell me that because my favorite type of lace is torchon (I really >like the geometric shapes and angles of it) that I was not a "real >lacemaker" Excuse me?? I have not been back since.
I don't blame you. Maybe it is because we tend to teach Torchon as a beginner lace, so there is the inference of "not progressing" if you don't move on to other laces, but no one is any the less a lacemaker for making the style of lace which they enjoy making - and I am sure that those who choose to specialise in just one type of lace will probably make that lace well, rather than just do a couple of samples, hide it away in a folder for the rest of its life and then flit onto something else. (New definition of a lace butterfly???). Personally, there are a few comments that get to me when I'm out demonstrating, which I feel need to be commented on. Firstly, the obvious ones of "that's tatting" (because fifty or so years ago a "tatting" was the name given to an oddment of machine made lace, and what we are making looks the same), "they make it by wrapping the thread round the pin" (and usually walk up just as you are making a picot so it is difficult to contradict them!) and "you must need a lot of patience for that" (in my book you need patience for the things you don't want to do). Those are from the non-lacemakers, who are usually easily corrected. The others, from lacemakers, are the apologetic "I only do torchon" and "I only work from [published] patterns". To me, these ladies are the ones who are possibly lacking confidence in their own skills, as I have said, there is nothing wrong with only doing torchon, as long as you enjoy doing it; and whatever would designers do if there were none who wanted to work from published designs? They are very *needed* lacemakers! We should be encouraging each other in whatever lace we do, not snobbishly putting others down because they "only do....."! -- Jane Partridge - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
