Hello everyone and Jane who wrote: > I've never been taught Binche but I've made a few small pieces from working diagrams and their construction makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Exactly what I thought when I decided 'how hard can it be' and made a small piece from its diagram. I am mostly self-taught from books, following a diagram was easy enough. And then I was able to see up close an old example of Binche; I marvelled at the mind and hands that created it. Fine, tightly woven threads seemingly went everywhere, but here, too, was a pattern repeat! Was there ever a diagram? Probably not. I got an idea, what if the lacemaker didn't read; they weren't illiterate, they were skilled in other ways. If they were unhampered by having to look at a page from left to right, and by extension anything else - could they see in all directions at once? Maybe they learned their craft by watching someone else, as one might when learning dance steps? I still reflect on that, with no conclusion, but getting back to making lace in the present, I like the new floral designs by Fumi Kanai and her students, and all I do is follow the lace's diagram using lots of movable sticky arrows to help keep track. Find the topmost element that needs doing first and move on from there. It is usual for several sections across the design to need attention before advancing. The direction of work is in a general downward manner even though it seems like one is jumping all over the place. Weaver pairs become passives and vice versa as required to fill in a given space. IMO working a Binche lace is puzzle-solving at its finest, whether designing or dependent on the diagram. -- Bev in Shirley BC, near Sooke on beautiful Vancouver Island, west coast of Canada - 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/
