Here in Vancouver for the past decade I have noticed, especially among younger people, a strong and growing interest in ‘slow manufacturing’ - ie, making things from scratch. The difference with my generation, I think, is that they’re really intrigued with making their own designs and projects, and they’re showing admirable inventiveness.
When I learned to make lace (early 80s) we were still getting clucked at by people who said real lace was only made with fine white thread, preferably linen. And, whether I was knitting or doing bobbin lace, I was more interested in re-creating designs of the past than doing my own thing, and so were the other people my age, no matter what craft they were learning. Now I know lots of young craftspeople - of both sexes - who will just take the technique and run with it, full of confidence and often with really good results that show a careful attention to technique. At a lacemaking demonstration a year or so ago, a young man stopped by the table, watched carefully for about a half hour, and then started talking about doing it with thick ropes. He was really excited about all the possibilities that he could see in bobbin lace. Hopefully a sign of the future! I think the best thing we can do to help lacemaking prosper is to demonstrate out in public where people can see us. With all the resources of the Internet, anybody who has seen bobbin lacemaking and knows how to spell ‘bobbin’ can find out how to do it and where to find books and supplies. The most important thing is for them to know these techniques exist! (This concern is probably a North American thing - here you can be born, live, and die without ever hearing about people making bobbin lace, let alone seeing any.) Knitting is easy to start, easy to learn, and usually portable. I think it’s more likely that knitting became hip first, and as a result celebrities started to let the public know that they did it, rather than the other way around. Certainly the young people I know who are into crafts are wholly uninterested in what celebrities do. Just my 2 cents. (Well, actually, since Canada dropped the penny, we round to the nearest 5 cents, so I guess this is just my 0 cents! Take it for what it’s worth ;-) Adele West Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada) > On Jul 22, 2016, at 10:29 AM, Devon Thein <devonth...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I guess there must be some celebrities who do knitting or crocheting since > someone said there was. The last one I recall was Rosie Grier who gained > some notoriety for needle point. .I have to say I am so far from even > knowing who celebrities are these days that it is embarrassing. But, my > limited observation of the millennials, my daughter included, is that they > really don't watch mass market television. They can't afford cable > hook-ups. Instead they watch youtubes on their computers and stream movies > from Netflix and Amazon. This means that they can stream DIY youtubes > whenever they want, including lace ones. In fact, there is a millennial > artist in Brooklyn who has taught herself bobbin lace from youtubes, > exclusively. > Devon - 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
