After "meeting" Rosemary Shepherd when I phoned her daughter's house to order Fantasy Flowers, and learning I am subscribed to arachne, she has e-mailed to ask me to forward the following post to arachne to clarify the position regarding her new book. I have ageed to because I feel it's fair we should hear from her about her new book.
'After a year of family tragedy and the hard work involved in producing a book I was finally able to relax here in the UK and look forward to the birth of my first grandchild, and to catch up with lacemaking friends. Then a kind and concerned friend sent me the postings to Arachne about my alleged plagiarism or 'adaptation' of Jana Novak's work in my new 'Bobbin Lace Fantasy Flowers' book. My first impulse was to ignore it, but so many Arachneans came to my defence - thank you all so much - that I thought I should set the record straight. In case those who do not know me think 'there is no smoke without fire' let me state firmly that I have never in my life copied or adapted anyone else's work and passed it off as my own. Would anyone seriously think that a lacemaker with more than 30 years experience, who was a founder of the Australian Lace Guild, curator of lace for 20 years at one of the world's largest museums, and decorated by her country for 'service to the arts, particularly lacemaking', would risk her reputation by doing such a thing? The ironical thing is I can't answer specific allegations because there are three heartflowers in the book and several with five petals, but not one called 'five petals' so I must assume that Karolina was perhaps looking at my web site and not at the book itself. I am also away from my copy of 'Fri Knipling', but to be perfectly honest I can't remember any 3D flowers in it, because I haven't looked at the book for so long. I CAN say that the dates on the notes Karolina has from my workshops do not reflect when the designs they contain were created, but when they were finally produced for teaching. As any teacher knows a lot of time and effort goes into ensuring that something 'works' before it is given to students. It is, also, a matter of record that I made my first one-piece 3D flower in 1977, for the Crafts Council of New South Wales 'Function and Fantasy' Exhibition, which toured Australia. In 1981 an image of the flower and other work accompanied an article about me in Family Circle magazine. Many people will remember this because it brought 400 new members to the Guild in the following months. I have been an independent lacemaker since my first six lessons with Nenia Lovesey in 1970. Even before these lessons were over I was designing my own lace, and in the years since have probably worked less than half a dozen pieces that I didn't design from scratch. I began to play with colour at about the time I started teaching in 1976, and also experimented with other materials such as copper wire, raffia and nylon monofilament. Two pieces of my lace from this period were bought by the Powerhouse Museum in 1980. I worked many more totally free-form flowers after the 1977 daisy - working over a sketch and placing the pinholes as I went. In the very early 80s I discovered the wonderful work of the Czech, Slovak, and Moravian lacemakers, and Elena Holecyova became my particular hero. She profoundly influenced the way I worked subsequent flowers (and other lace), but the flower designs were inspired by lace and woven textiles of the'bizarre period'. Eight of the 'Fantasy Flowers' were originally designed and made in the period 1980 to 1990, with minor changes evolving later. The rest of the book's flowers were produced 2001-3 for workshops in the US in 2003, and in some cases are extensions of much earlier design ideas. I think I first saw Jana's work in the mid-80s but did not own any of her books until about 1989-90 when the Australian Lace Guild first thought about inviting her to teach. Jana accepted the invitation for 1992 and I first met her when she gave workshops and a lecture at the Powerhouse during her trip. Later in 1992 we were both guests of the NZ lacemakers in Christchurch for '2201 pins - a Lace Odyssey', where my flowers and other work were part of the exhibition. I am happy to say Jana has become a friend. I love her creative work and greatly respect her historical knowledge. In a few weeks we will be meeting with other lace friends for lace study in Denmark. Neither of us has any need to plagiarise other people's work. I am sure we both have many more ideas than we can possibly hope to deal with in one life time. This is the very best time in my life. Having retired from the Museum I am at last free to make lace full-time and to publish the best of the work I have designed over the years, as well as some of my re-constructions of early lace - another of my passions. I sincerely hope that any lacemaker who thinks anything in a future publication is 'adapted' he/she will pay me the courtesy of speaking to me about it first, in private. Rosemary - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
