Re: [lace] Downton Lace
the clump would be the most 'economical' to the old lacemakers as it would be a fast way to use up the remaining thread on the bobbins. Lorri Ferguson From: owner-l...@arachne.com on behalf of hottl...@neo.rr.com Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2019 9:39 AM To: Jane Partridge; lace@arachne.com Subject: Re: [lace] Downton Lace Got it! Just seems like some waste would have been involved by having what would amount to "raw ends", start & finish. From an economic standpoint, preventing any waste of completed lace would have been desirable, hence my question. The start of my sample didn't look tidy & if I was the customer, I would not want to pay for that first bit. That's a loss to the lace dealer, the lacemaker or both. On the other hand, maybe the "bobbin clump" start would be more aesthetically pleasing in the hands of a more experienced lacemaker! LOL It would be interesting to see a demonstration of this lace using a bolster. So far, no Downton lace on YouTube... Sincerely, Susan Hottle FL,USA Jane Partridge wrote: How we hang in or finish off our lace has little relevance to those days, when lace was made and time wasted meant less bread on the table. Jane Partridge - 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/ - 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] Downton Lace
Got it! Just seems like some waste would have been involved by having what would amount to "raw ends", start & finish. From an economic standpoint, preventing any waste of completed lace would have been desirable, hence my question. The start of my sample didn't look tidy & if I was the customer, I would not want to pay for that first bit. That's a loss to the lace dealer, the lacemaker or both. On the other hand, maybe the "bobbin clump" start would be more aesthetically pleasing in the hands of a more experienced lacemaker! LOL It would be interesting to see a demonstration of this lace using a bolster. So far, no Downton lace on YouTube... Sincerely, Susan Hottle FL,USA Jane Partridge wrote: How we hang in or finish off our lace has little relevance to those days, when lace was made and time wasted meant less bread on the table. Jane Partridge - 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] Downton Lace
I’m also thinking about how lace was traded - lacemakers were paid by the length they made, and they didn’t make 50 yards of it in one long length the way machines do. It was cut off when the tally-man came, so all lace would be in fairly short pieces - of varying lengths. Looking at the voluminous dresses of the 1700s and 1800s, I’m sure it would have been a perfectly normal thing to have lace that was pieced together from several shorter pieces. Since the advent of machine-made things, we have become very nice about how perfect things must be, but that’s just us taking our cue from what machines can do. Back before machines, there was a much greater tolerance for variation, and mistakes, in hand-crafts of all kinds. Having visible ends isn’t even a mistake - it’s a normal part of the manufacturing and trading process. Adele West Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada) > On Jan 31, 2019, at 4:31 AM, Jane Partridge wrote: > > We tend to start patterns one at a time, winding bobbins particularly for > that pattern, and when we've done whatever length we want to work, be it for > a sample or for a particular project (which may or not hide the ends in > seams) we finish it off neatly and secure all ends with knots or whatever. > > "Back in the day" they wouldn't have had time for such luxuries. Lace would > be on the pillow, with a pattern started once - ages ago - with a length of > completed lace cut off (literally, with scissors, as we would cut a length > from a card of machine-made lace now) when the tally-man came to collect the > lace and pay the cottage worker making it, leaving ends at the "start" not > even in rolls, and the lace on the pillow continuing. > > How we hang in or finish off our lace has little relevance to those days, > when lace was made and time wasted meant less bread on the table. > > Jane Partridge - 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] Downton Lace
From the Downton Lace that I have done, and patterns that I have seen, all the lace is lengths, not motifs. I've just checked the book I have by Shelly Canning of Downton Lace from Salisbury Cathedral, there are no corners either. So you don't need to have pairs hung on one by one. When I did a course, I did wind my bobbins in pairs and then rather than cutting them apart, I tied a knot with however many pairs I needed to hang on each pin to start. Malvary, from a very, very cold Ottawa where we have broken the January snow record with 97 cm and almost record cold temperatures, only -18c with a wind chill of -29c which means that frostbit is a possibility. - 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] Downton Lace
We tend to start patterns one at a time, winding bobbins particularly for that pattern, and when we've done whatever length we want to work, be it for a sample or for a particular project (which may or not hide the ends in seams) we finish it off neatly and secure all ends with knots or whatever. "Back in the day" they wouldn't have had time for such luxuries. Lace would be on the pillow, with a pattern started once - ages ago - with a length of completed lace cut off (literally, with scissors, as we would cut a length from a card of machine-made lace now) when the tally-man came to collect the lace and pay the cottage worker making it, leaving ends at the "start" not even in rolls, and the lace on the pillow continuing. How we hang in or finish off our lace has little relevance to those days, when lace was made and time wasted meant less bread on the table. Jane Partridge From: owner-l...@arachne.com on behalf of hottl...@neo.rr.com Sent: 30 January 2019 20:21 To: lace@arachne.com Subject: [lace] Downton Lace Just finished my first tiny sample after noticing that this lace begins with a clump of single bobbins! I ended up with a start similar to Rosaline except with four groups of rolled bobbins instead of one. It's peculiar as there is no obvious place to hide the beginning tails when the work is complete. In Rosaline, the single tail gets cut off & the tuft is sort of sucked up into the back of the work. Since this is a straight strip, I put a knot in each tail & teased it down to meet the lace. Not sure how this would have been handled back in the day? Can only assume that any messy beginning would have been hidden in a seam. - 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/
