Alex wrote: In my experience the majority of lacemkers will follow the diagrams faithfully without understanding what is happening and also they believe it is the only way the pattern can be made.
My first instructor taught with colored diagrams, thread diagrams and prickings. She would have me color diagram a pattern from a picture of the lace first, then to do a thread diagram before I made the lace. Yes, it was time consuming - it was my "homework" before I had my "lace lesson" on the actual lace. Since I already knew stitches and my basic rules, she stated make another color diagram and thread diagram of another variation of the lace. I would then change the motifs or change grounds and/or change edges. We discussed the changes and the issues at hand, then I got to make the lace. I really wanted to make the lace! So this extra step made me think it through. Most often I would do the first lace and my variation. This motivated me and I did more lace. Gunvor taught me Tonder laces. As I advanced to the most difficult laces, when I would question areas of the colored diagram with what was actually transpiring on my pillow; Gunvor would state "you understand the lace - it needs to be your decision if an extra twist is needed there or even fits in that space with the tightness of all the threads. As long as you are consistent throughout the pattern it will be fine". She told me our thread was different (thicker) than the antique laces so we might need to make some adjustments for it to look nice. She also showed me on her antique pieces where the lacer of the piece made changes in different motifs. Did the lacer forgot to be consistent or just changed her mind based on what the lacer preferred? To me lace is a puzzle for each of us to work through. Chris Brill-Packard - 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
