Dear Michelle, This isn't a last minute panic to finish your Stage 2 Torchon Proficiency assessment by any chance???
If you have access to "Lace", in issue 100 (October 2000), Gwynedd Roberts has a 2-page article "Thoughts on Torchon". The actual text runs to about two and a half columns, about half of which is historical outline (and very amenable to being used as a base and padding with examples and illustrations). For illustrations and examples the digital archive of lace site has Davydoff (Dentelle de Russe) with Torchon laces made in Russia in the late 19th century, also books by A.M. Sime (patterns for teaching in India from about 1930). I don't know whether it has the DMC book, usually attributed to de Dillmot. Could be other useful bits and pieces - I'm still working my way through it. Most of the "serious" lace historians barely give Torchon a mention though. A search of the BLEN Spanish site will turn up examples of Simonas fans as an examples of regional developments. It is also worth considering what you can find on metallic laces and almost any of the "peasant" or regional laces can be used to further illustrate regional developments/variations - try Maurienne, Queyras, Cogne. Monica Thonhauser's books on the laces from the Museum Carolino Augusteum are another possibility if you have access to them. 's-Gravenmoerse lace is another thought (several articles in OIDFA Bulletin over the years). Free-hand laces and standard prickings are also useful ideas to consider. (Vibeke Ervo wrote an article in the OIDFA bulletin issue 4 1999 about standard prickings and a follow-up one about use of standard prickings in Russsia sometime later). In Issue 1, 2002, there is an article on bobbin lacemaking in Slovakia which mentions "miners lace" and peasant lace. Some years ago a friend of mine found a nice little family tree of laces - I think it came from Encyclopedia Brittanica (but the on-line version doesn't seem very helpful). If it is for ALG's Proficiency, there is a fair tradition of people using an intro paragraph to say that not much is known... and then to do a general history of lacemaking and they seem to get away with it :-) Christine Johnson (The Torchon Nut!) in sunny Perth, Western Australia PS. I found a great twined gimp pattern - in Kant Kwartaal 12.4 by Riet Delescen-van Rijsewijk (butterfly and twined gimp edging fans as well). - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
