Insect pins are made for mounting insect specimens on a display board.
There must be a huge demand for these things, because they're readily
available in shops on the internet. They come in a number of sizes from
very, very fine (000) to big (7). The heads of these pins are just a
tiny little dab of plastic, which bonds with the nail polish I use to
make them stand out in the crowd of pins on the pillow. I have found
that size 1, in stainless steel, is the exact same size as the Mechlin
pins which we are no longer able to find. Some vendors are already
stocking them as a substitute for the Mechlin pins. I prefer the
stainless to the black-coated pins because if you bend a black pin, the
coating will pop off and fall into your lace.
Unless you're working with fine threads on a pricking which packs a lot
of pins into a tiny space, you really don't need Mechlin pins. But for
Binche, they're much preferred to heavier pins. Yes, they do bend
easily, but I've learned to set my pins carefully to avoid bending as
much as I did when I first started using them. And when they bend, they
go into a special container, and occasionally I'll take the batch of
bent pins and carefully straighten them again.
Quilting pins are much, much bigger. They would serve nicely as holding
pins for most laces, but not when you're using fine pins. As a rule of
thumb, I would suggest that a holding pin should be no larger than the
pin you're using for your lace. Any larger would create a tell-tale
hole, which is what you're trying to avoid in the first place.
Clay
Sue wrote:
Can I ask what are 'insect pins in what way are they different to
quilting pins (which seem to be a bit thick anyway). I have some of
those and some of the things I think you perhaps call berry pins,
smaller than quilt pins, thinner than them but still with the coloured
tops.
Sue T Dorset UK where the sun is out today, for now
and I am almost finished the 4th of my napkin edgings, thanks to all
the ideas for our 40th anniversary pieces.
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