[...] for those of you who have always wanted to design - here is a thought - I
remember making Joan Kelly's basket for my mum. A friend at my lace group
liked the pattern but wanted to make a bigger basket, so she sat down and
designed her own one. When she finished, it looked nothing like Joan Kellys' - the
pattern of the torchon was completely different but she had used the idea as
inspiration. Also, she learned a lot from the process [...]
<VBG> That's *almost precisely* how I started... The first, baby, steps were just to substitute stitches in Torchon elements, to see what would happen if (I "open up" the cloth st diamond by substituting a big spider? Or "close" an area by making cloth instead of hst?). The next step was a situation almost identical to the one Liz describes...
There was a (Beds) butterfly, in Nottingham's Technique of BL which I liked very much, so I made it. Then I thought it needed a mate, but I didn't want it identical. I drew the same-size butterfly in "profile", stole as much from the original as I could, and filled in the gaps with what I thought might fit where I couldn't steal. Made that, and was reasonably pleased with the results. Then I used a pattern (which I never made "as is") as an "inspiration" (stole the layout and techniques <g>) for "building" a rose. Which was OK, but needed a stem and some leaves. Those were drawn "cold", but I found the techniques needed in Cook's Practical Skills in BL ("built in" a T and a D into one of the leaves; why not puff myself up a bit? <g>)...
By the time all that was done, I realised that I had the makings of an illustration for a little Polish rhyme (in translation: "a rose said to a butterfly: nobody's looking; go ahead and pollinate"). With a "twist", yet -- now the rose had a choice of *two* suitors... :) So that's how I mounted it -- the rose is beckoning (with a leafy stem) the two admirers...
The whole thing is rather crude, but I'm still pleased with it. Mostly because I had the sense to embroider the date on the mounting fabric: 1989. Can't remember when *exactly* in '89 it was made, but it had to have been after February (when I finally managed to build my first pillow, carve and spangle my first 12 prs of bobbins, and start setting the first stitches as described in Fisher's "Torchon for Today" which I'd brought with me from England in late December of '88). OTOH, it had to have been finished before late Nov of that year; I went to pieces then, when I heard of my Mother's death, and didn't emerge at the other end of the tunnel until late March of '90 (having to re-learn the C and the T all over again)...
And I too learnt a lot from the process... Mostly that the sky is the limit; there are always bits and pieces one can "beg, borrow or steal" from other patterns if necessary -- the number of *existing* patterns (each offering different temptations and technical solutions) is endless... And that it's *easier* -- in the long run -- to start with your your own drawings, work as much as you can on your own, and steal only when your own skills fail you.
That's when I stopped automatically throwing out all the giftie catalogues (can't draw to save my life, but I'm a whiz with an eraser, and they're an excelent source of ideas <g>), and also when I began exploring the "tape" laces (first Russian, then Milanese); "piece lace" being easier to design in than continuous (if you like "pictures", which I do)
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
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