On Thursday, Jul 24, 2003, at 20:25 US/Eastern, Patricia Dowden wrote:
[...] while Rosaline is a part lace and the technique ties off the ends of the threads from each flower or leaf section, the piece I have has the tied off tails on both the front and back sides of the lace (if it, indeed, can be said to have a front and back side at all). The knotted ends are pretty small and not noticeable, but I was really surprised when I saw that.
Never having done any Rosaline... I'll take a wild shot at an explanation anyway :)
If it's part lace, then the elements would/might be made first and joined later. Possibly, by someone else, or more than one "someones elses". Possibly (likely?) under "production" conditions, ie where time was of essence (as Michael Giusiana kept telling us at a workshop all those years ago: "your babies are hungry at home; you don't have the time to undo mistakes; you're earning food for them").
So, my guess would be sloppy assemblage. Only, perhaps, not as sloppy "as all that" -- you, yourself, say that the knotted ends on the individual elements are barely noticeable... And you weren't *supposed* to be looking for faults :)
*We* (the amateur lacemakers) look at lace through a microscope and study the path of every thread, but that was not true about lace which was made commercially and meant to be used. The broker, who bought the piece from the lacemaker, might have looked closely to make sure the standard of work was good enough. The Madame or Milady who bought it looked at the overall design (pleasing? or not?) The Monsieur or Mister who paid for it probably didn't look at it at all -- just the fact that it was there was enough to assure him (and the rest of the society) of his standing. Madame's or Milady's lover might have gotten a closer look at the details but - to quote Giusiana again -- any lover who paid more attention to Milady's lace than to Milady, stopped being her lover PDQ... <g>
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED]
