Hi Elena and Arachnids
I'm very intrigued by this as well and find it interesting that
contemporary lacemakers don't value speed and efficiency as much as
knitters do for example. Anyone who has learned how to play a musical
instrument can attest to muscle memory not happening after a week or a
month of practice, yet the reward for regular practice is noticeable
improvement. The joy of experiencing your hands on auto-pilot and your mind
seemingly blocking out every other stimulus with a razor-like focus is a
"destination" worth practicing for. (I am not nearly there at all... but I
have glimpsed a couple of "nearly there" moments)
Of course, it doesn't help that many lacemakers are inquisitive of many
different styles and techniques (the equivalent of taking up multiple
musical instruments...)
I'm equally intrigued by the idea of communal work as a means to create
efficiency - to have a collective work on a large scale project ("large" in
effort, and not necessarily in size) and of what value that could be for
commemorative objects, or simply for building a community. From time to
time such projects arise, and they are all commendable, but it would be
great to see more and to see lace collectives confidently engaging with
their immediate communities *and* the broader public (through major public
art commissions for instance...)
Please keep this conversation going? Any hack might just turn out to be the
thing that was missing in someone's technique. (That said, I've seen a
couple of unique knitters do very counterintuitive finger gymnastics at
incredible speeds, so it might just boil down to practice in the end.)
One thing I can highly recommend from experience is to sand and polish your
DIY bobbins to the absolute smoothest finish you can because super-careful
bobbin management on the pillow to keep your thread from snagging slows
things down significantly. (Guess who's on sanding duty for the next couple
of days in order to avoid that frustration again?)
Best
Pierre
Cape Town
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