On Jul 28, 2005, at 9:09, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Part of the instructions to new lacemakers is to leave a new bobbin
lace on
the pillow overnight so the last few inches of crosses and twists will
"set"
and keep their definition. This is probably because the teachers know
that many
new lacemakers have not established the correct tension yet.
I think there's more to this leaving lace overnight to "set" than just
the novice's inexpert tensioning. Afterall, if you learn on yardage,
you are forced forced to unpin and move on, especially on a roller
pillow, which allows you only a couple of inches (at best) made in
comfort (on top of the roller). And, with thick threads and few pairs
(beginners patterns), you accomplish those couple of inches fairly
quickly.
My tensioning - with perhaps the exception of the very start in some
pieces is, generally speaking, pretty steady, after 16 yrs. But I find
that, while I can take off a piece which took only a day or two to make
immediately, I no longer do it with a piece the beginning of which had
been pinned to the pillow for a week or two.
After a couple of weeks (or longer, in cases of people who keep many
pillows and many projects simultaneously without finishing), the thread
*does* "set". If you then finish a project and yank it off the pillow
immediately with a "Hip, hip hurrah, voila!", the last bit will
"shrink" at a different rate than the part which had had the time to
"set". I know it from bitter experience :) So now, on a larger
project, I tend to leave the newly made bit overnight (or longer)
before unpinning. Unless it's yardage, made on a roller, where I had
been unpinning all along, not allowing the thread to grow too
comfortable around the pins.
The professional lacemakers of Europe would have put their pillows
right to
work on a new lace. Once a piece of lace was complete, it was quite
necessary
to start another.
That's right. But that also meant that the earlier-made lace didn't
have the time to "set", so it was safe to unpin the later-made one
also... I'd still recommend that something like Miss Channer's mat,
which had been sitting totally pinned on one's pillow for months,
should not be taken off the moment the last join is done; you've waited
that long, you can afford another 24hrs (or, still better, 48) <g> Or
else learn to unpin as your work permits, so that the thread has been
exposed to the same amount of pressure for the same amount of time...
==============
On Jul 28, 2005, at 13:05, C. Johnson (Susie) wrote:
Don't give up.
<VBG> That soooo reminds me of Greet and her Liers class... She had
this big binder, with all sorts of "stuff" in it - a collection of
possible ideas, samples of smaller finished pieces (or photos of same),
graph paper... But, on the first page, there was this cartoon: a
pelican, trying to swallow a frog. The frog's head is already down the
pelican's throat, the rest of the frog is firmly flattened by the
pelican's beak. But, in the last attempt at self-defence, the frog's
front legs have taken a strangle-hold on the pelican's throat... The
captions says: "Never give up". Greet says she'll make it in tambour
one day, as it expresses her philosophy so well :)
=======================
On Jul 28, 2005, at 17:18, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I hope that students who will be taking Greet Rome-Verbeylen's Lier
class in
Denver have written thank yous to Tamara
Please don't <g> My Inbox is overloaded as it is - Jeri is absolutely
right, in that it took a looong time to write that report.
It was good to hear that Tamara's 250-mile drive home was uneventful.
I
departed to Maine the same Monday morning at 4 a.m. and completed my
550-mile
drive in 10 hours, plus another hour for a 15-minute nap at a rest
stop and a
quick restaurant meal enroute. (Hey, I'm 10 years older than Tamara,
and am
getting to the age where a nap helps break up a tiring solo drive!)
If I had to drive 550 miles in one "go", I would have needed more than
a 15 minute nap; I'd have needed a dose of a miracle eliksir to give me
courage <g>. Glad you got back home safely; I was going to check, but
you've asked us not to keep your address in our Addressbooks, so I had
to wait till you "surfaced" on the list...
This is a
lace I'd like to learn more about, and I hope more books will
eventually be
published on the subject of Lier tamboured laces. (Yes! Yes! I know
the Fukuyama
book, but that is not what "we" are reviewing today.)
I got it (the Fukuyama book) from Deb Bender (she really had
*everything* "together" for that workshop, didn't she?), but only
because I wanted to round out my - pitifully small - library on the
subject of tambour lace. It's not a very inspiring book, design-wise,
and no wonder, since she uses the chain stitch only; no fillings at
all. Jean Dudding's tiny little booklet, "Creating Coggeshall Lace"
(1994, no ISBN), is better than that, though not as good as Greet's
book.
=========================
On Jul 28, 2005, at 15:06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Clay) wrote:
I may have misunderstood you, but from your description, it sounds as
though you're looking for picots in which there are two visible little
loops for each picot. If this is correct, then you're not looking for
the same "ideal" picot that I look for.
Yeah, I wondered about that myself...
Susan, most of us avoid the "rabbit ears" (or your "two tennis
racquets") like a plague, when making double picots - both threads of
any *one* picot should be twisted together and inseparable until the
"stem" (one of the treads should be over and one under the "stem").
Like Clay says:
the picot should look as though the pin were still there, only
invisible!! In other words, a perfect little "o" on top of a tiny,
almost invisible "stem".
So she's right - you may already be making a perfect picot, but
pursuing an evil phantom <g>. Unless... By "two tennis rackets" you
mean two *single* picots, one each side of a plait?
What keeps a double picot twisted (or should <g>) and in position, is
what goes on before and after - the cloth stitch in the headside.
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
-
To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
