At 07:19 AM 8/18/2003 +1000, you wrote: >Someone on Australian Ebay has a copy of Malmesbury Lace by >Joan Blanchard, starting price $AU12.50. Does anyone have a >copy of this book and can describe what's in it for me please?
The book "Malmesbury Lace" concentrates on the lace that was made in the town of Malmesbury, England, for three centuries. It starts with a general lace history that soon narrows down to lace in Malmesbury, and has pictures of lacemakers both past and modern. This takes 31 pages. Following the history and background are 30 traditional patterns of a variety of styles and difficulties. Each pattern has a pricking, a diagram, picture, and detailed written instructions. Malmesbury lace was originally made with size cotton 140-180 thread. Since this thread is no longer easily available, the author has adjusted the pattern size to use DMC Brillante 50 (or Brok 100) thread. The original lace was made on a fat round pillow (almost a ball) and used very plain thin bobbins -- something like honitons with flat ends. No decoration on them. The majority of the laces were edgings and insertions, so the lacemakers had to 'move up' the lace after every 10 or 12 inches made. (Bless the roller pillow!) The lace is a point ground with some similarity to Bucks but with it's own variations on the stitches. Anyone with experience in Bucks should be able to succeed with these patterns because of the detailed information given. The technique of dealing with the threads in the valleys between scallops is very different from Bucks. It's a very dainty lace, in general. By the way, the purchase price on my copy (a few years ago) was $39.95 USA. I have enjoyed reading the historical part of the book, and worked several patterns. Any other questions about the book? Happy lacing, Alice in Oregon - Gained 2 students from county fair demo!! Oregon Country Lacemakers Arachne Secret Pal Administrator Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
