Dear Peg, The Australians have replied to an American, which was quite a surprise. Many of them are *really isolated*. We write about lace book availability and teachers often on Arachne. If you un-subscribed from Arachne, is it our fault? Some authors of books published in fairly recent years have given Tess permission to scan books into _http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/lace.html_ (http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/lace.html) In addition, books that are out-of-copyright can be found at this free University of Arizona site. A huge amount of work has gone into making this available to lacemakers, and in my travels I have met lacemakers all over the world who use it! You can also go to _www.Lacefairy.com_ (http://www.Lacefairy.com) - a virtual lace museum, and the first developed for Americans who think they are all alone in the process of wanting to know more about lace. The Lacemakers of Maine are behind these two (above) resources, and up to now we have not had more than 8-10 members at any one time. We know what it is like to be in a remote location, away from museums and lace resources, and have tried to fill information gaps for everyone. Yes! Everyone! All over the world! A third option is fairly-priced lace books/booklets published by The Lace Guild, England (a good cause). These are written by well-known lace teachers. Check out their instruction books from the International Old Lacers library, which has books that are current (in copyright) -- not just out-of-print (as you said in your letter), and then order from lace specialist book sellers in the U.S. (in your case) if they are something you want to own. You can read about them at _http://www.laceguild.org_ (http://www.laceguild.org) A fourth is local library sales of old books that have not been checked out for a long time. Get acquainted with your local librarian! At the least, check out lace books at regular intervals, so they won't be de-accessioned! You live in the Cleveland area. Last time I looked, Ohio had 6 Chartered Lace Guilds connected to IOLI. And there may be more groups that are not Chartered. Go to IOLI website for more information about local lace groups. They often have local lace libraries from which their members may borrow. Select officers, then your regional representative; write to her. _www.internationaloldlacers.org_ (http://www.internationaloldlacers.org)
We are not supposed to be too commercial on Arachne. Since you are a member of IOLI, you see the American Lace Supplier ads in the quarterly bulletins. Follow up by looking at web sites given in ads in lace publications. Lace books may be over-priced because they are costly for individuals to produce. Often the authors have to incur travel expenses far beyond what you can imagine. They may have spent years learning what they are finally sharing in book form. Learning is very expensive. Also, they need considerable resources at their fingertips (costly). Then, when their books are published, it is often they who put up the money! It is a huge risk for all our lovely authors and teachers. Please bear this in mind. Buy when a book is new, and you will not pay excessively for a in-demand out-of-print book. Stay subscribed to Arachne, and you will learn much. Have fun, Jeri Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center ---------------------------------------------------------- In a message dated 6/17/2011 6:26:49 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, wytchy...@sbcglobal.net writes: The Arachne archive has been an amazing treasure trove of lacemaking information for me. I was so glad to see that the list is still active. I subscribed last week and already picked up a few good tips........ One of my biggest frustrations in lacemaking is the availability of reasonably priced books...as in under or around $20. Lace books are printed in short runs and sell out quickly. When they show up on sites like Alibris, Half.com or Amazon, they're usually at least 2 to 3 times the cover price. Some are just plain outrageous...i.e. today, Amazon.com has a copy of Rosemary Shepherd's INTRODUCTION TO BOBBIN LACE MAKING for $372.33...no, that's not a typo. I borrow a lot of out of print books from the IOLI Library, but I feel funny copying patterns out of them. I don't like to infringe on copyrights, but I also don't have a lot of money to spend on overpriced second hand books. And I would like to see the authors get the money for the books, not the second hand owners. I wish more of the authors of lace books would consider, once the first run of the book goes out of print, selling them in either a .pdf format or through one of the print-on-demand sites like Lulu.com. BTW, Lulu currently has 7 bobbin lace titles available and 19 lacemaking titles. Peg - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
