On Apr 19, 2008, at 15:39, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
What is the source of the silk thread used for Maltese lace? That
wonderful luminous cream silk ...
No clue about the silk used for Maltese lace, except the fact that the
more modern Maltese uses synthetic thread, probably rayon (which can be
quite lustrous), as Karen from Malta has said.
But. I'd like to share my latest discovery...
Part of the fun -- and frustration -- of deciphering the dinosaur laces
(ie the earliest ones) is trying to find a thread which is "just so" to
do it with. We know -- from Frieda Sorber's little article (White
threads to the past) in Nina Andries' book "Onder de loep" -- that the
linen used in those early laces was not plied or twisted; they used a
single ply, which compressed easily in heavily-tensioned plaits, but
relaxed and filled the spaces in the cloth-stitched areas. Such dream
tread is no longer available to us, at least in the finer grades (I'm
told that single-ply weaving linen works well, but it's not very fine).
That's one of the reasons why modern reproductions never look quite
right.
So. For the past couple of months, I've been working on *coloured*
early laces. That is, laces which use both metal (or, in my case,
metallic) and multi-coloured silk threads. Finding the right silk
thread -- one which matched my preferred metallic (Moravia 40/2) in
thickness as well as in other characteristics -- posed a problem, until
I remembered the Cluny class I took at the IOLI Convention in Montreal.
There, we used Au Ver a Soie "Soie Ovale" to make the petals (leaf
tallies) with; its shine contrasted beautifully with the matte of the
"soie d'Alger" we used for stems.
I thought I'd give that thread a try in a different -- older --
environment. Soie Ovale is a single ply, very shiny, thread, meant for
embroidery. It's composed of what seems like hundreds of
spiderweb-thin, barely visible, individual "threads" -- pretty much
like a "thread" unwound directly from a cocoon, which will also split
into many components, once the sericin is removed (it is, also, as
difficult to handle; it snags on every skin imperfection you didn't
even know you had <g>). There are many -- though not nearly as many as
in Soie d'Alger -- colours available.
And it works! Beautifully :) It tends to twist on itself, compacting,
when you plait with it. But it untwists/relaxes (some; not as much as
I'd like) for the cloth stitched areas. Although I've never seen the
piece I'm reproducing now (from Le Pompe, book I) made up, it looks,
"in spirit", very much like the coloured laces of the period that I
*have* seen (in photos or in real life), so I'll be using it again.
Possibly, even for all-white laces :)
If your Maltese is made with about the same size thread, Soie Ovale
might be something to consider for repair work. Their white is "optic"
and unsuitable but "creme" might do and "brut" ought to be perfect.
--
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]
