In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Milada Marshall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >Following recent local talk about the method of doing prickings, may I ask >what is your normal / preferred method?
I usually use the first of Milada's two methods - although as I mostly work my own designs, I rarely use photocopies. Most of mine are pricked straight from the graph paper draft, or from a print out if I have used the computer to design the pattern (I use FastCAD - not one of the specific lace programs, simply because we already have it on the computer - it serves the purpose!). In class, if a student brings in a book from which she wishes to do a pattern, she is given the choice of either walking down to the local photocopy shop to make a photocopy, redrafting the pattern onto graph paper, (particularly if it is not a very true pattern to start with!) or tracing the pattern onto tracing paper. The pricking is then made on pricking card, the pattern markings transferred first in pencil (easier to correct if you make a mistake in copying at that stage), then drawn over with a fine, *waterproof* pen. Finally the pencil markings are erased. I (personally) mainly use one of Winslow's prickers but if using my pin vice use a size 8 Sharp/Quilters needle in it. >An alternative method is to cut the pricking slightly smaller than the card, >and take a piece of 'blue transparent film' slightly larger, and use this to >attach the pricking to the card. You then have to prick all the holes, as >before, but you don't have to draw any lines. The main disadvantage of this >is the lack of accuracy, One of the main reasons I only use this method for very complex patterns (and in some methods of needlelace, though I still have some architects' linen) is that it adds to the cost of the pricking rather unnecessarily. In changing the colour of the card away from the standard manilla brown, it is more likely to blend in with the colour of thread I am using at the time (often greens and blues). I don't really see how it affects your accuracy, Milada - if you use a photocopy to produce the pricking in both methods, then accuracy is down to whether or not the photocopy is distorted, not the film covering it; and the first method leaves more room for mistake. Also, the pattern is less likely to slip if it is stuck in place! I was taught to use this latter method when I first started making lace, and in addition to using the film to hold the pattern to the card, we were taught to use a Pritt stick (solid PVA glue stick) to glue the photocopy to the card first. Of course, working Honiton patterns, you dispense with the need for ink markings altogether - pattern indications are marked by pin holes. Here I do tend to use a photocopy or tracing of the original - my present very long term project being one of Ann Orr's Quilting designs (the prick and pounce markings on the pattern sheet were usefully at the right spacing for the pinholes!). One method of copying a pattern I haven't tried is the old heel-ball method, where a rubbing is made of a pricking, and then the new pattern pricked from the rubbing. Does anyone still do this? -- Jane Partridge - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
