Hello everyone,
I have just re.subscribed to the lace list after a few years break.
Today, 11th Sept. is Catalunya day, the region in which we live in Spain.
It is the major Fiesta for the whole region, made up of the four provinces
of Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona and Lerida in he North Eastern corner of
Spain.
We have just had a lace exhibition in the town where I live on the coast.
On display there were some very nice pieces of lace. Some of the lace fans
were absolutely gorgeous.
The lace exhibition began on 21st August in our exhibition hall and us lace
makers from the town took it in turns to spend a morning or afternoon at the
exhibition on a rota basis. It ends today 11th Sept. This morning we also
held our annual lace making day on the sea front under the palm trees where
lace makers from other towns had been invited to take part too, which is the
normal thing. There must have been a good 500 lace makers at their pillows
and some ladies making needle lace.
I was at the exhibition this morning, taking my turn to keep an eye on
things, and quite a large number of people came in to view the pieces, chat
about the pieces and take photos. I had a quick visit to the sea front to
see the lace making going and to see the stalls selling threads & patterns
etc.
I have a few pieces of lace, in the exhibition, that I have made over the
years. I also added my latest effort, some flowers which I finished in June
this year.
The flowers I made were from the wedding bouquet pattern produced about 1984
by the Itchen Valley lacemakers in England. I had a copy of this pattern
for years but had only ever made one rose just to see how it would turn out.
I never had the courage nor patience to make the whole bouquetful. But back
in 2006 I was going through my patterns and books and realised I could not
find the bouquet pattern. I asked on this list if anyone had a copy of the
pattern they didn't want or if anyone knew where I could get another copy to
buy. I was in luck. An English lady, called Hazel, at the time living in
Holland on a canal boat, contacted me to say she had a copy that she would
never use and so sent it to me in exchange for some of the Finca lace making
thread sold here.
I still never got on and made the flowers I just couldn't pluck up the
courage to begin such a project. But when I was told about the exhibition to
be held here and the theme was to be nature and colour I thought now is my
chance to get on and make a few of those flowers from the bouquet. I had no
intention of making the whole thing but just a few of each flower for a
small posy. I made the 3 roses as per the original bouquet and began on the
hyacinths, the stephanitos and the lily of the valley. Bit by bit the thing
grew and kept growing until I had made, not only 3 roses, but 21
stephanotis, 14 hyacinths, and 25 lily of the valley as well as 8 rose
leaves to scatter through the arrangement. I had made the whole lot as per
the original bouquet after all.
As I don't have any brides that need a bouquet I decided to turn the whole
lot into a long table centre which is also more convenient as it sits very
comfortably on the shelf in my glass cabinet away from the dust.
I used silk thread bought on line from England I began making the petals at
the end of last December and finished at the end of June this year. But
during that 6 months I had to wait a week here and there for more threads to
arrive in the post as I kept running out. I also had many times when I
could not face another evening making petals and wondered why I had ever
started the project. I mostly only worked for about 4 hours or so in the
evenings, which time I always think of a my time after dinner is finished
and the dishes are washed. In all I must have worked for between 4 & 5
months of evenings and the occasional afternoon. Once I had completed all
the flowers and put them on stems. I then could not get up enough nerve to
make my arrangement. I have never made a bouquet of any kind before and I
found it daunting to attempt. But I managed in the end and I think it
turned out well.
The pattern was produced in the days before computers and digital cameras
and only has rough sketches of how the bouquet was put together so not a lot
to go by. Hazel who sent the pattern to me also sent a coloured photo of
the bouquet so that I could what to aim at.
Yesterday the local TV station here showed a piece on the exhibition and the
pieces on display, my flowers were shown about 3 times in all and were
spoken about, which was very nice. I have taken some photos but I don't
have a web page to put them so can't show them to you in that way. If
anyone would like to see a photo I can send them a copy as an attachment to
their address so contact me if you like, but be warned the photo of the
whole thing is quite a large file.
I would very much like to contact Hazel who sent me the pattern back in 2006
to thank her once more and perhaps show her my version of the flowers. If
she is still subscribed to this list perhaps she would contact me.
Regards
Jenny DeAngelis
Spain.
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