My contribution to this discussion is that personally I prefer to work on card rather than paper, so if only paper is available I use two or three thicknesses. This is because I like the feel of the support that the pricking gives to the pins.
I don't always prick in advance - Withof and Hinojosa are pricked as you work, and my own designed Milanese I work in the same way. For strip laces I do tend to prick in advance as it makes it *much* quicker to place the pins accurately as you can feel the holes without needing to see them. For this reason, and after the recent discussion with David about the need to pin Point Ground ground at all, I am surprised he doesn't pre-prick, but I guess with a single layer of paper/film there wouldn't be much of a hole to feel; when I am pricking in advance I tend not to use the film as it heals over the hole and reduces the benefit of the work done pricking. >From the quality of David's lace he is obviously well able to hit bullseye with most, of not all the pins <VBG> For my students though, it depends on who they are. Some of them really struggle to do a good pricking even when they don't have all the threads hanging over the dots, and for them I do encourage pre-pricking in a good light and with a magnifyer - even if they don't need to use one for the lace itself. Most actually prefer to do it, and I would never discourage that. Jacquie in Lincolnshire - 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://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
