Dear Arachnids While researching over 300 pieces of Bucks point for my book I found there were more techniques and variations on techniques used in the East Midlands than is generally realised. Just to take the footside - I found any number from one to four twists on the pairs at the footside. I found varying numbers of twists on the ground pair on the ground side before and after it passed through the passives. There were pieces with one or two pairs of footside passives, and some had them of thicker thread. About one third of the Luton Museum pieces I studied had a half stitch for the stitch about the pin instead of the accepted cloth stitch (A technique usually attributed to Tonder rather than East Midlands). At one time I thought that the catch-pin stitch was always made as a point ground stitch, but I have come across some lace that is almost certainly East Midlands that has cloth and twist. I have in fact found just about every technique listed as made in 'other countries', in the OIDFA book on the Point Ground Lace Family, in East Midlands lace. The OIDFA book is an excellent one that shows the techniques as they are made in different countries today, (unless otherwise stated) but it is unsafe to use it for identification purposes. Probably the only way to distinguish between English and Danish lace is by historical evidence and possibly style and I am not an expert on these.
Best wishes from a dull, cold morning in Sussex Alex - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
