Devon wrote: >Although I suppose it is possible that it is a bobbin made >tape, it doesn't look like the tapes I make with bobbins. Instead, it looks >more like a shoe lace, by which I mean, the threads are all going sort of >diagonal and there is no footside or edge pair or sign of pinning. >I have read that sometimes the tapes were made on looms. I don't know if >this is what the tape would look like from a loom. Does anyone have a clue about >how this tape was made? > Without seeing the tape, I can suggest a few things - first, yes, it could have been made on a loom, though if you see a diagonal direction to the thread it was likely plaited. What we call 'finger weaving' is plaiting with multiple strands. Finger weaving, as the name suggests, is done without a loom. The collection of threads is anchored, and the strands are woven over each other, with the fingers, in a given sequence. There are many ways to plait. Some methods use single strands; there is another of a system of loops, or perhaps with weights (in which case a support is needed for the weights, and this setup in effect is a 'loom'). If the threads at the edges appear to be folded that would suggest plaiting. If cord-making by hand is a common craft taught by example, then when cords could be made more efficiently some other way, or for whatever reason they were no longer made, the 'how-to' would be lost to the sands of time, unless one can reconstruct the particular cord. On speculation, if the tape Devon sees is like a shoe-lace - then the cord is the same as the strict meaning of 'lace' a connection I find fascinating.
Yesterday, at an art group, I was staring at a poster reproduction of a Botticelli, called 'Annunciation' - the Mary figure was an elegantly robed young woman c. 1490. What fascinated me was the trim on her cape - it was yellow (gold?), and I would have said the trim was 'brocade woven' except the intersticial areas of the trim were transparent - looking distinctly lace-like, if quite geometric. I wondered how it was made - because the painter/technicians had taken pains to be quite accurate with the other features of the painting (such as transparent veils) one could hope that they rendered the trim fairly accurately. I need to investigate further (alas no sign of 'tape' on the garments though). bye for now Bev in Sooke, BC (west coast of Canada) Cdn. floral bobbins www.woodhavenbobbins.com - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
