I was also taught bobbin lace by Nenia Lovesey in the late 60's early 70's after having seen her demonstrating in a church hall in Crowthorne, Berks where I lived. I was fascinated and asked where I could learn, to which she replied "at the Berkshire craft Centre in Wokingam in what was the old Brewery". I enrolled and took to bobbin lace like a duck to water, just couldn't get enough of it! Nenia always told us to be beware as once we had caught the Lace Fever, there was no cure, and how right she was! I also learnt from the Swedish Knippling book with the accompany brown cards printed with the Torchon patterns and still have both book and patterns today.
Nenia was invited to be Craft Co-ordinator at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell and asked me to take over the bobbin lace classes at the Wokingham Craft Centre. I said I couldn't possibly as I felt I had insufficient knowledge, but she insisted and said I would be okay, so I agreed. Once she had got South Hill Park Arts Centre up and running she asked me to teach bobbin lace there too, which once again I did. However, there were no qualifications that one could study for in those days and Nenia had also been asked to teach a City & Guilds Creative Textiles course at Windsor & Maidenhead College, which covered everything that made a textile, including both bobbin and needlelace. This was my chance to gain some sort of qualification, so jumped at the opportunity! When I signed up for the bobbin lace class in the late 60's my youngest child Suzanne had just started school, so with both of them at school I was able to have a couple of hours to myself to indulge in my new found hobby, but by the time I enrolled on the C & G course at Windsor, they were both teenagers, so some years had passed before I got to this stage! I knew nothing whatsoever about needlelace and had probably looked at many examples, assuming in my ignorance that they were bobbin lace - wrong! I excelled at needlework at school in the late 40's/early 50's and would have loved to have earned a living at it, but my teacher at school told my parents that it was hard work and poorly paid, so I had to drop the needlelwork and take the shorthand/typing class. Britain was still recovering from the war in the early 50's and no way would I have been able to earn a decent living by needlelwork! How I would have love to had been an apprentice at The Royal school of Needlelwork, so you can imagine how honoured felt when several decades later I was invited asked to teach needlelace the apprentices at the RSN which was then based at Princes Gate, London. I taught them one whole day a week for six weeks. Nenia was an incredible woman, a member of the World Crafts Council and there was nothing that she couldn't do. She taught us to spin, weave, card a fleece, work Irish crochet, knit, work Sans Blas, bobbin lace, needllace, Carrickmacross and so many other things, too many to mention! Today she would have been awarded an OBE for services to lacemaking but sadly she was never honoured with such a prestigious award, although more than well deserved. Most of us who make needlelace today, would not know how, had it not been for Nenia, as to the best of my knowledge she was the only person who knew how to make it! None of the other guilds in 1980 were remotely interested in needlelace, largely due to the fact that they knew nothing about it! As a result, Nenia and a small group of her students at the publication party for the launch of her first book 'Needlepoint Lace' published by B T Batsford in 1980, decided to form our own Guild, which ran until October 2017. However, as! not one single member came forward to join our committee at the AGM last year, the Guild of Needleace had no option but to fold! What a sad state of affairs and we really do owe it Nenia to continue the legacy she has left to us. Is there no one out there who makes beautiful fine white needlelace and who can pass on these techniques for the benefit of future generations? I have done my level best over several decades, travelling many thousands of miles both here in the UK and overseas to pass on my skills, but all I hear is "I couldn't possibly see to do such fine work" but I see beautiful fine white Honiton lace still being made, along with gorgeous Binche, Bucks etc so why is it so difficult to find a tutor to teach 'Traditional Needlelce" I wonder? Nenia wrote a book 'Reflections on Lace' for her grandchildren, published again by B T Batsford in 1988 (now out of print of course), but f you can get hold of a copy or borrow it from your Guild library, I recommend that you read it. There are letters of congratulation from The Crafts Council of Great Britain Ltd (page 132), Royal County of Berkshire Department of Education (page 134) and an article about Nenia and her amazing achievements (page 130/131) all praising her for her hard work and dedication to reviving so many of the old crafts that were in danger of dying out, mainly due to the war years! The same thing is about to happen if we don't endeavour to keep the various forms of lacemaking alive; difficult I know in this modern world, which is so very different from the one that most of us grew up in. There is so much fascinating history/information in her book, even talking about how as a child she used to sit under the table in London where the Tebbs sisters wer! e teaching lace! Catherine Barley Henley-on-Thames, UK Catherine Barley Needlelace www.catherinebarley.com ----Original message---- >From : ec...@cix.co.uk Date : 27/03/2018 - 09:32 (GMTDT) To : lace@arachne.com Subject : [lace] Lace revival I started to make bobbin lace in 1970. Nena Lovesey started me off with a simple pillow, some Belgian bobbins, and excellent basic instruction! I loved it! When she thought I was able enough, she introduced me to the Swedish Knipplerscan books. There were two paperback books of patterns, starting with the simplest and gradually increasing the complexity. Nena believed that the two wars had split families up, and moved them apart, so that grandparents were no longer able to pass on craft skills to grandchildren. So she instigated the opening of a craft centre, and collected as many crafts people as she could to pass on their skills to another generation. This included “male” crafts as well as “female” ones. I think she had a big influence on lace, in this area of the UK at least, where she taught and encouraged so many lace makers. Kathleen In a wet and chilly Berkshire UK Sent from my iPad - - 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/
