Re: [lace] Old beds
Jane Partridge wrote: Check the way the pairs go in and out of the trails to do the plaits and tallies - Beds trails carry passive pairs that go in and out of the trail, keeping the trail workers to work back and forth, but Cluny swaps the trail workers into the plaits. It's not as clear cut as that. I had a bursary from the Lace Guild to study the techniques used in a book of fine Bedfordshire lace samples dating from the 1860s. It had originally belonged to the Rose family, lace dealers in Paulerspury, Northamptonshire. The book contained 870 samples, some duplicated so there were 729 samples in all excluding exact matches. I found the that 38% had the Beds technique mentioned above (30% only this technique) and 44% had the Cluny technique (27% only this technique) and that 40% had variations of these techniques for dealing with plaits joining and leaving trails. I think it's only since techniques have been published in books that the sharp distinction between Beds and Cluny techniques has been made. The old lacemakers, working to earn money, did whatever worked best to give an acceptable result. I'll be interested to see a detailed photo of David's friend's handkerchief. Jean in grey Glasgow - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
Hi Jean: Thanks for this. Interesting to finally have some hard data in the lacemaking world! I remember as a very new lacemaker, being haughtily told that a piece of Honiton I had made was actually something else (Whithof? Brussels?) because of the way I had done a join. I had taken the pattern from the Devonia book, which didn't have the best instructions, and I'd had to figure out that bit as best I could. I had no idea that my little efforts had 'ruined' the lace. I thought it looked nice. Adele West Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada) It's not as clear cut as that. I had a bursary from the Lace Guild to study the techniques used in a book of fine Bedfordshire lace samples dating from the 1860s. It had originally belonged to the Rose family, lace dealers in Paulerspury, Northamptonshire. The book contained 870 samples, some duplicated so there were 729 samples in all excluding exact matches. I found the that 38% had the Beds technique mentioned above (30% only this technique) and 44% had the Cluny technique (27% only this technique) and that 40% had variations of these techniques for dealing with plaits joining and leaving trails. I think it's only since techniques have been published in books that the sharp distinction between Beds and Cluny techniques has been made. The old lacemakers, working to earn money, did whatever worked best to give an acceptable result. - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
Funny how a thoughtless word can hurt and influence us so much when we are starting out. I saw a pattern in a book and went to my lace teacher with it. I said that it would be perfect as a present for my mother as a piece for her dolls house. It was pattern 106b from Pamela Nottingham's bucking lace book. My teacher said with a well remembered sneer, oh you can't do that for ages yet as you have to master torchon before you move into bucks. I asked about honiton and she could nearly get the words out; honiton? Not for years yet. Let's see, I made my first piece of honiton 6 weeks later and that bucks piece? That would be the one that took me 2 hours to make last week. As a teacher it is your duty to guide and encourage every student to make the best of their abilities and ensure that they enjoy and continue in their chosen craft. To tell someone that they can't do something now or ever or to disparage what they have done is unforgivable. What is worse, such teachers take money off people to teach them. If, as Adele did, someone makes a piece of lace that has good tension, looks like it should do and has taken effort to make, then the right response should be 'that is beautiful'. Kind Regards Liz Baker On 20 Oct 2013, at 17:35, Adele Shaak ash...@shaw.ca wrote: I remember as a very new lacemaker, being haughtily told that a piece of Honiton I had made was actually something else (Whithof? Brussels?) because of the way I had done a join. I had taken the pattern from the Devonia book, which didn't have the best instructions, and I'd had to figure out that bit as best I could. I had no idea that my little efforts had 'ruined' the lace. I thought it looked nice. - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
Liz, you said it best. I was fortunate and had two of the best instructors and the bestest mentor when i started out. my mentor taught herself Milanese for me to learn from her. what better foundation could anyone get? i will never forget either person and have remained in contact even after moving many miles away. i think so fondly on what i was gifted. i have only had a minimal encounter with future lacers so far, but i try to gift as i was gifted. thank you, Stormy, Honor and Denise. On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 10:32 AM, The Lacebee thelace...@btinternet.comwrote: Funny how a thoughtless word can hurt and influence us so much when we are starting out. I saw a pattern in a book and went to my lace teacher with it. I said that it would be perfect as a present for my mother as a piece for her dolls house. It was pattern 106b from Pamela Nottingham's bucking lace book. My teacher said with a well remembered sneer, oh you can't do that for ages yet as you have to master torchon before you move into bucks. I asked about honiton and she could nearly get the words out; honiton? Not for years yet. Let's see, I made my first piece of honiton 6 weeks later and that bucks piece? That would be the one that took me 2 hours to make last week. As a teacher it is your duty to guide and encourage every student to make the best of their abilities and ensure that they enjoy and continue in their chosen craft. To tell someone that they can't do something now or ever or to disparage what they have done is unforgivable. What is worse, such teachers take money off people to teach them. If, as Adele did, someone makes a piece of lace that has good tension, looks like it should do and has taken effort to make, then the right response should be 'that is beautiful'. Kind Regards Liz Baker On 20 Oct 2013, at 17:35, Adele Shaak ash...@shaw.ca wrote: I remember as a very new lacemaker, being haughtily told that a piece of Honiton I had made was actually something else (Whithof? Brussels?) because of the way I had done a join. I had taken the pattern from the Devonia book, which didn't have the best instructions, and I'd had to figure out that bit as best I could. I had no idea that my little efforts had 'ruined' the lace. I thought it looked nice. - 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/ -- Hugs, Lin and the Mali *I just realized I am so old, I have forgotten I have been there and done that.* - 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/
[lace] Lace teachers was Old Beds
I didn't take a class until I'd been making lace, on and off, for 24 years. My second class was Honiton, a weekend. That was almost 10 years ago. I still remember the teacher looking at my work and saying, somewhat musingly, You make nice lace. Those sorts of nice comments can make all the difference. A good teacher makes such comments and encourages her students. Good for Liz for overcoming that hurdle. Unfortunately, some people would have believed the teacher and not tried. Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, where the weather is lovely for fall. Sunny, highs in the 60'sF 17C, low around 40F 4C. The leaves are really turning here. The tulip tree in the back is turning the color of Italian gold. - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
Double amen to that! Those teachers who discourage also take joy from the craft when they criticize this way! Liz in cool and windy Missouri USA where the leaves are beginning to change color. Unfortunately, I have way too many green tomatoes and it is supposed to freeze Monday night. -Original Message- From: The Lacebee thelace...@btinternet.com To: Arachne list lace@arachne.com Sent: Sun, Oct 20, 2013 12:39 pm Subject: Re: [lace] Old beds ...As a teacher it is your duty to guide and encourage every student to make the best of their abilities and ensure that they enjoy and continue in their chosen craft. To tell someone that they can't do something now or ever or to disparage what they have done is unforgivable. What is worse, such teachers take money off people to teach them. - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
Many of our older more set in their way teachers, say you have to learn things in a set order. It is often the way they learnt or were taught. Has anyone thought that this may be why young people are not taking up lace? Our young people want to fly before they learn to walk but often they do fly given enough encouragement and good foundations. Recently I rethought the whole notion of why we learn lace the way we do. In lacemaking towns children learnt honiton or bucks or beds and may never have learnt torchon at all. They had to be productive early and the sooner the better. I think that once some one has mastered cloth stitch and half stitch they should be able to do any lace at all. There are no concepts that have to be learnt other than those 2 stitches and every lace goes from there. So question why are we statring beginners on torchon and not say Milanese or beds or honiton? Anna in Sydney where the smoke from the bush fires is very evident. The fires are more than 30km away but the smoke is covering Sydney - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
I also started out with a person who enjoyed calling herself a teacher, but who was actually a terrible teacher. She hated that I wanted to move on beyond her boring exercises into real lace. So I just armed myself with recommended (by Arachne) books and worked on my own with occasional trips over the mountain to visit Tamara and get her sage advice. As soon as I was able, I went to every workshop I could manage, and have never looked back. I have to give credit to this guild for demonstrating at popular festivals which is how I discovered lace so many years ago. But I can count on my fingers the number of their students who have gone beyond the basics. Clay Sent from my iPad On Oct 20, 2013, at 6:18 PM, Liz and Ken Roberts lizke...@netscape.net wrote: Double amen to that! Those teachers who discourage also take joy from the craft when they criticize this way! - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
Dennis Hornsby once said to me that if I had been born in Buckinghamshire and learnt lace during its heyday, I would have learnt bucks point and nothing else. So why did i think I had to learn in an order? I can see a progression from nice lace to another in the same way we can see how one lace evolved from the techniques of another but that doesn't mean to say you have to learn it that way. When I learnt to play the guitar I was taught by someone who was two steps ahead on the book. Then, when I went for formal lessons, I was expected to play scales which I couldn't and the teacher was annoyed that technically I was much more advanced in my playing than her students who could play scales. My original teacher found a piece that we used to use as a warmonger and then we went for it. When I taught myself to play the piano I found a piece I wanted to learn (I dint know how to love him) and went for it. When you hit a roadblock then don't try to get over it or around it. Just choose another destination. Kind Regards Liz Baker On 20 Oct 2013, at 23:49, Anna Binnie l...@binnie.id.au wrote: Recently I rethought the whole notion of why we learn lace the way we do. In lacemaking towns children learnt honiton or bucks or beds and may never have learnt torchon at all. They had to be productive early and the sooner the better. I think that once some one has mastered cloth stitch and half stitch they should be able to do any lace at all. There are no concepts that have to be learnt other than those 2 stitches and every lace goes from there. So question why are we statring beginners on torchon and not say Milanese or beds or honiton? - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
Our lace group is small (about 20 members) but we currently have a couple of really kind and generous members who are willing to baby sit those of us with less confidence and knowledge. They lead without pushing and not only tell us how to do it, but also show us how to determine where to go on our own. I am very grateful for their encouragement and help! People like that make learning how to make lace an enjoyable adventure. Liz in Missouri USA - 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/
[lace] Old Beds
I made 3 Beds hankies from Springett patterns, - but I used a fine silk thread not cotton, - and a couple of teachers went Yuk when they saw them - as they were soft and 'floppy not stiff and crisp, laying over the hand. Which is what Beds lace is supposed to do - according to them. I was very disappointed in the remarks and felt quite deflated, as I though I had done a good job with them,. I still feel that way, and they are 2 pretty hankies, nicely made and mounted - for me! I love them, anyway!!! Who says that beds lace has to be with plenty of body- why cannot it be soft and drape nicely? By the way - has anyone had their IOLI Bulletin for October yet? I think one is due, - isn't it? Regards from Liz in Melbourne, Oz. - 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/
Re: [lace] Old Beds
I heard today that the IOLI Bulletin was mailed a couple of weeks late. As far as teaching..I went to a demonstration and the woman doing bobbin lace told me you can't learn on your own. I have been slowly working through some of the books and I think I am doing pretty good. I run into some problems here and there and just put that piece aside in hopes one of the other books will have a better explanation of the technique. So far, so good. Mariann Arizona - 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/
Re: [lace] Old beds
Hi All, When I started making lace I already had a pretty good idea of the direction I wanted to take, namely Beds and Maltese. I took a week long course and one of the first things we did was a Russian flower that was big enough to take us at least 2 days to finish - we certainly knew how to twist and cross by the end of it. At the end of the week, I asked if one of the teachers could teach me how to do leaves as both Beds and Maltese have lots of leaves. The one teacher took the time to teach me and there was never a word that I wasn't ready or I had to learn other stuff first, which meant I learned to do leaves without any fear or preset opinions about leaves/tallies. I love doing leaves and most of the lace I do has leaves, including my 5 meters which had 10 leaves per repeat and about 125 repeats in the 5 meters. I have to credit my first teachers for letting me approach making lace the way I needed to and not putting boundaries on it, which has allowed me to attempt any type of lace I have an interest in. Cheers, Cindy Rusak, in Bracebridge, Ontario, where the cool fall weather is finally about to hit us. - 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/
[lace] RE: Learning on your own
Hi All, The Australian Lace Guild runs Correspondence Courses in Bobbin Lace (my introduction to lace 30 years ago), Needle Lace and others - it certainly can be done. I did not find it a problem then, but have been happy to take advantage of the opportunities that have presented, mostly in recent years, to attend workshops. Mary Carey Campbelltown, NSW, Australia - 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/
[lace] old beds
Jean, Thanks for posting about your study on beds lace. I am presently working on a design taken from a Thomas Lester lappet that has been adapted by Holly Van Sciver and enjoying every minute of it. I started at convention this summer and as the pattern had not been worked before I did not have much to go on. At one point, Holly asked why I had not twisted the worker going around the gimp on the inside of an leaf before exiting the leaf. The leaf looks like an oak leaf shape to me. I replied that I liked the solid look of the cloth stitch next to the gimp. When we checked an enlargement of the original lappet the lacemaker back then had twisted on some leaves and not on others. I am playing it by ear and as the pins are coming out at the top for reuse further down, I am liking what I can see, and if I am happy, I don't care about anyone else's opinion. I feel like I am in a race to get down to the bottom just so I can see the lace finished. I can't imagine making something like this for employment and I am using thicker thread than they used. I have over 2,000 pins in the piece. I know that because I had to keep going back to Hancocks for more. I promise to post it somewhere when it is done so you can all be critics. It will be put aside while I make a robin or two. For those who are not familiar with the British robin, you can see a picture here http://aipetcher.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/british-birds-the-robin/ The US robin is more like a British starling but has a speckly red breast instead of solid color. I miss seeing our little robin. I guess it must have been my favorite bird as we called our son Robin. Janice Janice Blair Crystal Lake, 50 miles northwest of Chicago, Illinois, USA www.jblace.com http://www.lacemakersofillinois.org - 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/
Re: [lace] Old Beds
I went to a demonstration and the lady giving the talk said you can't learn lacemaking from a book, you need a teacher I had 6 lessons and made two things. A strip of white cloth stitch 3mm wide and 30cm long and a strip of half stitch the same length. It was a though she didn't want us to progress. Then I was in foyles bookshop, in charring cross road and I found Brigitte Cook's Practical skills in bobbin Lace. So for the next year, I used that book and two others. Pam Nottingham's Bucks Lace and Pam Robinson's manual of Bedfordshire lace. At the end of that year, I found a local group and two of the ladies encouraged me to try free lace and honiton. The rest, as they say, is history. Because I train people for a living, I understand how important it is to find the right way to help them learn. If a student asks the same question again and again, you have to find another way to explain it and patiently show them again and again. Either you are not explaining it in a way they can understand or it may be that because they haven't had time between lessons to practice that they have simply forgotten. Until the skill embeds, you have to support them. Kind Regards Liz Baker On 21 Oct 2013, at 02:44, Jack and Mariann jac...@cableone.net wrote: As far as teaching..I went to a demonstration and the woman doing bobbin lace told me you can't learn on your own. - 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/
