I am coming in a little late on this, I know. But, the Metropolitan Museum of Art owns a lace fan done in Chantilly technique that is supposed to be of human hair. It also has some dress ornaments, also lace, from the same donor. There is a reference in Palliser, I know, to snowy locks of some kind of English lacemakers being made into lace. However, I don't think that the quote could be applied to the MMA's piece, since ours is in Chantilly. Chantilly is a particularly good lace for using hair, I believe. The fan leaf is made in oddly shaped parts, then sewn together. By oddly, I mean that the shapes are determined by the need for sewing together and so follow edges of leaves or stems, making finding the seams very difficult. However, you are not working a very large piece at any time. Also, the individual threads that are carried along in the "gimp" and go in and out of the design area, allow for introducing and getting rid of hairs quite easily. The half stitch ground is one that does not use a lot of length, so super long hairs may not be needed. Our hair fan is either of blonde, or blonde, gray hair, as the hairs are almost transparent in their lack of pigment. Devon In a message dated 4/3/2010 10:57:35 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, al...@i2k.com writes:
Lora <lorabutter...@btinternet.com> wrote: > >On a bit of a Victorian tangent this morning I wondered what sort of lace would have been used for mourning items in Victorian England and on a slightly different note if anyone had tried using bobbin lace techniques for hair work? I imagine it would be extremely fiddely and frustrating but it could be a good project. I don't know about bobbin lace techniques, but coincidentally I am working some of the hairwork braids from a Victorian-era book, Mark Campbell's 1867 "Self-instructor in the art of hair work". <http://books.google.com/books?id=vLdAAAAAYAAJ> or <http://books.google.com/books?id=BNATAAAAYAAJ> They are intended to use bobbins, but he used a round table with a hole in the center like the Japanese maru-dai (braiding stand) used for kumihimo. (I am using a circle cut from thick craft foam!) Lynn Carpenter in SW Michigan, USA http://lost-arts.blogspot.com/ Ravelry ID: alwen - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
