When I took my first lessons in bobbin lace way back in 1977, I was taught
to trace the pattern from the book or photocopy and then prick through the
tracing onto strong pricking card, then transfer the markings with pencil
first and then with a fineliner pen, rubbing out the pencil markings. I
prepared all my prickings this way for quite a few years, and passed it on
to my pupils too.
Then I discovered the see-through matt contact paper and making photocopies
became easier when copyshops opened up. I still used card under the
pricking whether I covered it with contact or not.
Then, in 2007 I went to Gozo, Malta to attend the Lace Summer School. We
were taught by Consiglia Azzopardi and she demonstrated how the Maltese
prepare their prickings. What a light-bulb moment!
They use the see-through blue contact the same as everyone else but sandwich
the photocopied pricking between the contact on the front and the backing
paper at the back. To add extra strength to the pricking a piece of calico
or old sheeting is sandwiched in there too, between the photocopy and the
backing paper. It makes a nice strong pricking but is soft enough to make
the pins go through easily.
I never did master Consiglia's trick of folding the top of the sandwich and
sticking that only, and then flipping the whole thing up in the air and it
all sticks together in a flash, and I never want to use a hard Maltese
pillow again, but I nearly always use the blue contact and it's backing
paper to prepare my prickings now. I still preprick so that I can feel where
the pins must go, making the lace as accurate as I can while saving wear and
tear on my eyesight and my back. I also hate using white thread on a white
pricking as I cannot see what I have done or whether there is a mistake
there.
Janis Savage in Honeydew, South Africa
Where we are having the last few days of lovely summer weather before autumn
sets in.
---------------------
This suggestion has been put to me a number of times and so I'd
better confront it. There are a number of reasons why Iwill never
copy on to card stock and these include:
- I could not stand to have to pre-prick
- I get enough calluses and holes in my finger tips pushing thousands
of pins through paper - let alone card.
- when I decide to make a piece of lace, I want to do it right NOW,
and my paper prickings covered in plastic can be ready to work in
only a couple of minutes.
- of all the hundreds of pieces of lace I've made, both large and
small, I have never had the need
David in Ballarat
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