Miriam wrote: When I was in Malta in May and took the lace course there we only used rayon threads. Since silk has become too expansive for them their lace is done either in rayon or linen. (Karen correct me if I'm wrong). Also the lace sold at the tourist centers was rayon. It wasn't easy to work with it at the beginning because the Maltese bobbins we were given were rather rough and not well finished and the rayon got caught on them.
Yes, this is perfectly true. We've been using artificial silk here for a long time. Most visitors think of Maltese lace as being heavy silk with fat leaves and so they expect to see silk and are often disappointed to see linen. There are some lacemakers who still have real silk, and often much finer than the one normally seen in tourist shops, but it is only used for really special occasion lace and guarded judiciously. We also still use cotton, cotton and silk being the traditional materials for Maltese lace, linen only arriving in the middle of the 19th century. I think the reason linen has become so popular is that it is a lot easier to get hold of than anything else because so many other countries use it and there is quite a wide range of qualities imported. The price doesn't seem to match the quality though!! As far as the bobbins are concerned, again, yes, they are quite rough. We always sand them down before using them and I sometimes varnish them. Traditionally, of course, they were rubbed in unwashed sheep's fleece to oil them. It's not so easy or convenient to get hold of a fleece these days - although a few of my neighbours still keep sheep for cheese!!! Knots??!! Knots??!! In lace??!! Why ever would anyone need to have knots when it is so easy to weave in new threads and sew in old ones when using thread as thick as this. The only time a good Maltese lacemaker may have knots is when joining pieces together and, as Leonard points out, the thread used for joining often does not stand the test of time anything like as well as the one used for making the lace. Margaret making Maltese lace on Gozo - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
