Hello all,
I suspect that this effort has taken me some 20 years to come to fruition, and it would not have ever happened if it were not for some very generous collectors, knowledgeable people and of course all you arachnids who helped me along. Particularly in the early days when we did more than a few team efforts to learn the practicalities around this subject. Of course I do not make lace, so I relied heavily upon you all and you came to the party every time. You will see by the introduction to the new web site my poor admin skills have been very much in evidence when it has come to individual recognition of many of your contributions to the document. Please accept my humble apologies to some of my helpers who are sadly anonymous! The web site was done by volunteers, with our son probably the lead person, but this sort of work to him, is a bit foreign, he deals in databases, patients and money! Any way, it has happened and is a bucket list achievement that I can now cross off. The correct representation of images gave a lot of difficulty, so I need to say that there may be a few of the images that you wished were better, but as I look at them they should be meaningful to you, if not perfect in my eyes. I can not finish this announcement without acknowledging the immense debt of gratitude that I have to Diana Smith, for he superb expertise, observations, social history knowledge and indeed owner and curator of what is probably the best Lace bobbin collection in the UK: THE DIANA SMITH COLLECTION. Thank you Diana, you are a very special person. I am not sure if the term "Power behind the Throne" is totally appropriate, but that is about how I feel. Smile. OK, so the main document is: "A DICTIONARY OF ANTIQUE ENGLISH LACE BOBBINS", this includes a separate section on what is probably my speciality "ENGLISH EAST DEVON (HONITON) LACE BOBBINS". There is a second paper that Diana and I worked on which is "A COLLECTORS GUIDE TO LACE BOBBINS"; all the bobbins in this document are illustrated by bobbins from the "THE DIANA SMITH COLLECTION". I have included and extensive bibliography on Lace Bobbins and also my current collection of articles on various aspects of lace bobbins. I am slowing down on this type of writing as I seem to addressed most of the differences and difficulties that a study of lace bobbins often raise. Not that I have all the answers! BTW there are couple of purely fictional tales in this list! I pretty sure I will be adding the odd article and as is my want I usually let the list know when it is up on "Arizona". Finally I have to acknowledge the work of the Springetts who really awakened lace makers interests in the tools which they use. There is little doubt that the Dictionary has been built, at least to some degree, on their excellent work. Thank you Here is the URL and it worked a few moments ago I hope it works for you and will be a valuable reference tool for you. brianlemin.com the pages load in small groups as the document is so long as you would wait a very long time before it all loaded up, so be a bit patient as you scroll down. Happy Christmas and New Year to you all. I am now of an age when my excitement is anticipating an operation in January!!! What old people do for kicks!! Smile. (oh yes, younger people too) Fondest "strings of my heart" to you all, weave them into your work! smile Brian - 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/