This morning we had a meeting of our small lace group. A lady had heard about us and asked if she could join us for a meeting as she has lace that she would like us to see and identify. Now you must realise that lace collectors are even rarer than lacemakers in South Africa and we were expecting the usual machine lace and tatting. So this lady pulls out a plastic flip file and says she keeps her lace in there and she has been collecting on overseas trips since 1987. The first piece to come out is a piece of Brussels lace with the provenance of ''made in 1750"!!!! Everybody just shrieked "Get the lace out of the plastic"!!! Jeri Ames I know you hair is standing on end! This lady has them all - Gros Point, Reticella, Binche, Honiton - they are all there in their plastic sleeves and the one finer and more unique than the other! She wanted to know if she could just use ordinary detergent to wash them and what shall she mount them on to frame them! She did say that she thought they were rare as she had paid quite a sum for some of them. She does not sew or do any handwork of any kind as she is left-handed and was forced at school to be right handed. She also had a set of files of the different types of lace and how to identify them that she had bought on a previous trip. I am really enjoying the thread on competitions and judging and often wonder why we need competitions. Do they not stem from the time where a woman's value was measured by her competence in the home???? What alternatives are there to reward people for exceptional handwork?
Thank you for the kind remarks re the value of my work. Maybe donating lace for a raffle needs a re-think but then Bev has had a very pleasant experience. Jeanette Fischer, Western Cape, South Africa. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
