Hi Jane and Arachne: > It's interesting to read the different ways different people tackle the problem, and I'm sitting here wondering how many who regularly use the ghost pillow/voodoo board method were self taught?
I was originally self-taught, though I have had many different teachers over the years. I did not use a voodoo board to learn and I have never needed to use a voodoo board for laces where the threads travel in an easily-recognizable direction, like Bucks and the others you mention. However - the Flemish laces! My goodness! I was so glad when a teacher calmed my frustration with this excellent suggestion. Once I got used to the way the lace is made and it started to make more sense, I needed the voodoo board less and less. I can now make the narrower laces without one, but when it is a matter of a wider lace, I will always set one up so it is handy if I start to need it. I believe it is actually more difficult to follow a thread diagram than it is to just wing it - put the pricking down and work it as you wish. When you follow a thread diagram, you are trying to re-create somebody elses thoughts and make yourself think the way they thought. Its a little like dancing - you can get up and boogie on your own just fine, but if somebody else has made up a dance and youre trying to follow their footsteps, it is not so simple. You do learn the original techniques better if you slavishly follow a thread diagram - particularly a thread diagram of a reconstruction of a very old lace. After the initial shock of learning these laces wears off, you can see when a technique was used and how it was used, and how the whole pattern is kept together by having a pair occasionally run the whole width of the piece. You can see where the threads originally ran a little uphill - often to back-track and make the picots come out even - and sometimes some technique mystifies you until you get to the next repeat and you see they didnt do that again. Following a thread diagram is like looking over the shoulder of the original lacemaker, and I love being able to do that. <snip> > That said, using an enlarged diagram covered in plastic film or laminated, and having low-tack adhesive stickers or dry wipe pens to mark your place sounds a much better idea than sticking pins in or drawing over the lines. It means that if you decide to do the same pattern again, you can re-use your original enlarged copy, rather than having to reproduce it. Yes, but Jane - then you wouldnt get to stab it with pins! Adele West Vancouver, BC - 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/
