Hello Sue
The 'S' is chemical lace. Made by working cotton machine embroidery
onto acetate fabric which is then dissolved away chemically leaving
only the embroidery.
Once the embroidery machine has been programmed (probably
electronically nowadays) it moves the fabric about automatically, so
definitely machine made.
The tell-tale signs are:
slight fuzziness around the edges
cloth stitch which doesn't look right
leaves/tallies with passives which don't all start and finish at the
points.
If you look closely at the back of the lace you will probably be able
to see that the machine stitching is the same as an ordinary domestic
sewing machine makes with the bobbin thread tensioned tightly and
slack tension on the top thread so that the 'satin stitch' forms on
the right side and the lock stitches sit on the reverse.
BTW - with all the recent discussions about Kantcentrum it's perhaps
worth mentioning that a lot of the lace sold to tourists in Bruges is
chemical lace. It all comes down to finance, and chemical lace is
MUCH less expensive than handmade lace.
Brenda
On 10 Nov 2009, at 12:13, Sue wrote:
My sister recently visited france, sending me a couple of postcards of
Bretagne lace pictures and today I received a package from her of
items she
bought as a gift for me. One was a little crochet doily, sold to
her as
handmade as well as 3 cards with motifs attached. She felt they
were probably
machine made and I am hoping you folk out there can explain what we
have here.
needle, machine, or what is its official title and how it was made.
There are
3 of them, one a sprig of flowers, one a musical clef and notes and
the 3rd
which is the letter S, for obvious reasons:-)
I have put that one (3 times the size) into my folder on arachne under
Hurwitzend album.
Brenda in Allhallows
[email protected]
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/
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