Jacquie writes: << which side is the beginning and where does it end? Vertical? Horizontal? Short end start, work the length of the piece, otherwise the hundreds of pairs of bobbins would be thousands, even with the smaller piece. On the smaller piece, which is the one with a slightly better photo, there looks to be a slight difference on the right hand end, this could be the finish. The end should be easier to find than the start - unless it's machine lace.>>
Far be it from me to comment on a piece of lace that I don't have a clear image of, and may even be machine made. However, it has been my observation, especially with chantilly, that very large pieces like this are often made in pieces that have very strange and counter-intuitive shapes. The edges of the shapes may run along the solid work so that joining is invisible, and as little joining as possible has to be done in the mesh. Often they are artfully designed so that there are places with just a very small space between lovely fronds. In this way, the piece can be made in numerous small pieces on a pillow, then joined, but the joiner has to be very expert in joining technique. As a result, all the exterior pieces can be uniform, without a lot of threads ending at one end, because the ends of the pieces are actually on the inside. I think it was Pamela Nottingham who made the observation that working large pieces on large pillows with a huge number of bobbins results in uneven tension and difficult working postures, and that it was not often done in the past for that reason. Devon - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
