Devon and others, I think you have made some great points about designing, if you 'first' have the desire to design. Then there are some who 'just do it'. I never thought of myself as a designer (a very minor one at best) until I took college are classes (I was in my 40s at the time). But I had been designing all my life, I just thought I was 'changing what I had already seen'. My mother used to say "why do I buy you patterns (for clothing) when you never make it look like the picture". I think some people have a natural talent for it. But if you get me into another 'media' I can't do anything but 'follow the directions'.
When I retire (at the end of this year) I hope to do more designing in lace and the thoughts expressed here are a wealth of information. Thanks to all. Lorri Graham, WA, USA I have been reading these stories about teachers and students and now designing! How do you even begin to design? This is a subject that I have been thinking about for some years, and no one would place me in a tier of design that is not "amateur". My artistic talent is non-existent. In fact, my sense of spatial relations is so poor that I cannot even draw a floor plan of the house I live in. But that should be proof that designing is not something that requires a lot of visual talent, unless you want a spectacular result, of course. People who read the IOLI Bulletin can read the process that I used for the piece that was on the back cover. As a not particularly good designer, I would offer the following ideas. One of my first designs was a panda bear fan. I had my daughter draw the Panda, since she could draw, although only 7 years old, and I cannot. I made him in a narrow braid and filled him in with grounds I knew or could cadge from the book of grounds. Persons who are mathematically inclined use the lace design programs with great skill to design continuous type laces. I tend to use them to generate grids for the most frequent kinds of fillings. Then with a scissor, I cut the grid to fit in the area I want it to fit in and tape it in. In fact, frequently, I simply choose between the premade grids on _http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/lace/design.htm_ (http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/lace/design.htm<http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/ lace/design.htm>) and print them with my computer on a card type paper from the computer supply store and fool around on them.This is a very easy way to design. While you work the piece, you will have a lot of time to think about how you could have made it more complicated. Then your next piece can be more complicated, and you can develop even more theories while you work that. Having taken free lace techniques such as Withof and Milanese allows you to draw a picture and make a piece of lace on it, once you understand the techniques. Jane Atkinson has taught and written a lot about modern design and her ideas are very inspiring. Taking a design class with her or others can be of great help. Now, I find myself in a phase where I get some materials and I fool around with them, often on the preprinted grid from the above lace site and see what interesting effects can be derived from the materials. For instance, when you combine different fibers and do different things with them, does something magical emerge? Then you have to figure out how to optimize that effect and try to make it into something. Although I have been known to be able to take a picture of a known lace from the museum, and, with the help of graph paper, draw it out. I tend to still do this by hand with tracing paper and graph paper, and counting the threads and stitiches in the original piece. I am somewhat intimidated by the idea of designing borders, etc., even with the software, possibly because I am not a specialist in most of these continuous laces. A true artist, of course, would be able to counter positive and negative space, and, using artistic design principles and color theory produce a much better product. I do keep coming up against the issue of whether in lace design, technical proficiency or artistic ability is more important. Historically, it seems that the designers often designed, and then the makers figured out how to make the piece, so both talents did not have to reside in the same person. Good luck, Devon [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
