Hello Karen
I beg to try to straighten out some of the ideas discussed here. In
Maltese
lace, it is not absolutely necessary to have the Maltese cross,
especially
with ecclesiastical lace (made for priests' vestments and for use in
churches).
Yes, I understand that, but even if made to commission and for a fee
ecclesiastical lace is unlikely be sold in the tourist shops.
Also, you cannot really count threads etc, because most of the
early patterns were worked on a handmade grid which was not necessarily
even. (I know because I have just finished a centrepiece worked from a
very
old pattern). There are times when we are filling in motifs with cloth
stitch when we may put in extra rows to bulk out a piece or to carry
pairs
to the side where we need to use them next.
The nature of cloth stitch worked on any sort of grid is such that the
worker pair travels across and down one unit of the grid and then back
horizontally without going down. Thus there are four threads filling
one unit of depth. This compares to one pair of threads for each grid
unit across the width of the lace, ie two threads per grid unit. So,
unless the grid units are twice as long as it they are wide (a very
shallow working angle of about 34 degrees) there will more worker
threads than passive threads.
Adding an extra row of cloth stitch to bulk out an area that looks
sparse will add extra threads to the depth without adding any to the
width. Bunching passive pairs to the side will have the effect of
reducing the number of passives in the main cloth stitch area without
reducing the number of worker threads. Much the same effect on the
ratio of worker:passive threads.
I do agree with you in saying that the more floral/less geometric a
piece of lace is the less easy it becomes to assess the numbers of
passive or worker threads in an area of cloth stitch.
As for the shape of the leaves, these differ from lacemaker to
lacemaker.
Of course they do, as they do in Beds or Cluny or any other lace that
has petals in it.
Now, with modern lace work, we tend to use lots of techniques taken
from
other laces as well.
That's true of all modern forms of lace too.
Brenda
Karen in Malta
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of
Brenda Paternoster
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 11:30 AM
To: Alice Howell
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [lace] silk thread, and measuring in reverse
Hello Alice
No I haven't tried working out the thread size from a finished item!
Cloth stitch should have 4 threads between pinholes measured
vertically but
only 2 threads between them if measured horizontally. Look at any
thread
diagram to confirm this.
In torchon it means that in cloth stitch the worker threads are much
closer
together than the passive threads, but the variable working angles of
Maltese, and especially Cluny may well reduce the difference.
I've been told that all Maltese lace made for sale (on Malta) is
required to
incorporate the Maltese/St John cross, but anything made for the
lacemaker's
own use/family does not have to include the cross even if everything
else is
'Maltese' in design.
Maltese lace is a sort of Cluny/torchon mix. Sometimes the regular
grid of
torchon is most prominent with fancy grounds but mostly it's the
plaits and
petals that are the most important design feature.
Maltese has fat petals (often lots of them) with cloth stitch
crossings.
Cluny petals are slimmer and crossings are usually done with paired
threads.
From my own collection of bits and pieces I can say that Cluny may
have a
9-pin edge but the nearest to that that you find in Maltese is single
plait
at the edge with evidence of a pin where it changes direction, but not
a
proper picot.
Brenda
Has anyone tried to figure a thread size from a
finished item? I tried it on my collar with this
result.
Figuring that the tightest clothwork area would be a
bit similar to the spacing of a thread wrap, I counted
several different areas, vertically and horizontally.
In this case, I consistently got 10 or 11 rows or
columns per centimeter. That would translate to 20-22
threads per c. In "Threads for Lace", that size could
be Gutermann 40/3, Piper Twisted Gloss 90/9 or 40/3,
Piper silk Gimp 40/3 or 45/3, Mulberry Silks 70/3.
This gives me a place to start.
The other puzzle is whether this collar is really
Maltese. It was labeled Maltese from the lace dealer
I got it from. However, I'm beginning to wonder if it
really is Cluny. It seems to have features of both
laces, but that's not unusual since the two laces are
in the same family.
It's also missing some of the distinctive features of
Maltese. I thought at first that it might have an Art
Nouveau influence on the design. That might explain
the design differences.
Before someone else asks, no...I cannot send a scan of
it. I haven't learned how to do that yet. If I get a
friend to scan it, I'll let you know.
Brenda in Allhallows, Kent
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/index.html
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Brenda in Allhallows, Kent
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/index.html
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