Hi Karen and Karisse ! First of all, I wonder if Karisse made a typo, or if your honiton pillow is really 50" in DIAMETER!! Did you mean circumferance? That makes a lot more sense. I have a straw filled honiton pillow which I bought from Holly VanSciver. She has them made to very strict standards, and this one is about 15 inches in diameter, roughly 46 inches in circumferance, and about 7 inches high. It is made so that it can be used on both sides. And yes, it is very, very firm...I can't depress it with my thumb. But the straw is very finely chopped, and so the pins go in fairly easily and hold extremely well. In other words, it is an ideal Honiton pillow. Too bad I don't do Honiton! I bought this before going to a Honiton workshop, and after finishing the project, moved on to other things. One of these days, I'll get back to it... it IS a beautiful lace!
As for the question about straw vs. ethafoam... As Jean Nathan has already said, straw pillows definitely weigh a great deal more than foam. If you tote your pillow to classes or to Guild meetings on a regular basis, this consideration is worth noting. If you keep your pillow in place at home and rarely move it, then the characteristics of straw may appeal to you. I find that straw pillows come in a variety of qualities... even among those which have been "professionally" made. "Straw" is a catch-all word that is sometimes used to describe a variety of natural fibers found in pillows. I have a wonderful Swedish roller pillow (an ebay find, years ago...) which currently sells for two to three hundred dollars. It is filled - VERY firmly - with sea grass, and will probably last far longer than I will. There are no "slubs" or knots of grass joints to interfere with the smooth entry of the pins. And the weight of the pillow insures that it doesn't easily scoot around on your work surface - a consideration that I appreciate. But as the original price of this one suggests - good straw pillows take time and a great deal of expertise to make, so the price is usually fairly steep. I also have a straw filled pillow which has an unknown grass, and contains the slubs I've mentioned. Although it looks good (covered with linen, nice size, etc.) it isn't much fun to work on. I have an antique Danish pillow which is covered with dark green serge and is stuffed with straw. This was done very carefully, so there are no slubs, and it would be delightful to work on, but I don't want to risk hurting the wool cover (which already has one tiny hole in it...) This one is a beauty - its twin is pictured in Whiting's "Old-time Tools and Toys of Needlework" on page 180. If I weren't concerned about the integrity of an antique, this old pillow would still be cranking out lace after all these years!! Now to the man-made substances. They're relatively inexpensive. When you mail-order one, the shipping isn't more expensive than the pillow. They're portable. And, like straw, there is a range of quality among the options... Styrofoam is to be avoided. This is the stuff that comes formed around our computer parts, coffee pots, and most other breakable items when they're packaged for sale. Stick a pin in styrofoam just a few times and it breaks down to crumbs and is a mess. Ethafoam, according to Jean, is not available in the UK, but IS available in the US. Because the UK has a much longer tradition of lacemaking, and quite a few more experienced teachers spread over the country, they seemed to have been quick to discourage the use of ethafoam. It shares the qualities I spelled out above, but it has some negatives... The one I object to the most is that it is not quiet!! Put a pin in, and you hear a tiny squeek... pull it out, another squeek. Not loud, but just enough to be annoying to me. But it is self-healing, meaning that it will hold up to lots of torture by pins. And VERY lightweight. It comes pre-molded to shapes that work for us in the form of pillow kits from Snow Goose, etc. Builder's insulation foam is another foam which has been widely used. It can be purchased at very reasonable prices from building supply stores, and shaped with rasps to whatever shape you want. Easily cut with a simple hack saw, you can make blocks, cookies, whatever you want. Cover your foam with several layers of wool felting, and you have a very serviceable pillow. It doesn't have the singing feature I find in ethafoam, but I don't think it is quite as durable either (but haven't had time to test that suspicion). So that's my opinion, for what it's worth!! Hope you find it helpful! Clay Clay Blackwell [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [Original Message] > From: nerakmacd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Clare Settle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Lace list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 7/17/2004 1:00:31 PM > Subject: [lace] Straw vs ethafoam > > As a total novice, I notice that many intermediate and experts have a > mixture of both ethafoam and straw pillows. > > I'm wondering which pillows you prefer, and why. I know that the ethafoam > can become worn easier after much use with the pins. Is it the same with > the straw, or does the straw tend to 'regroup' better after being used over > and over with the pins. > > I hope I'm making sense here. Most novices start with the ethafoam because > of it's cheaper cost, but as you progress and become better, do you prefer > to move up to straw because it's better to work with? > > I must say this is the most active I've been on this list, as I'm usually a > lurker, who hasn't done any lace in some time, and I'm finding this thread > most interesting. > > Karen > Ontario, Canada > > - > To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
