For the Newbies on our Arachne list: Reviews of the various lace bulletins have been written to Arachne over the years. It would be beneficial to the cause of lace preservation if you joined, at the very least, your national organization of lacemakers. It is through these organizations that most lace teachers are sponsored and their travel to various countries to teach is arranged. It does not just "happen", and no one is getting rich teaching lacemaking and keeping various lace skills alive. It involves a lot of volunteer work by the people in your home country's guilds to bring a variety of lace educational opportunities to you. You do not have to incur the high costs of international travel - you share the costs with other students to bring a teacher to you. When a teacher becomes popular, there is often the opportunity to publish a book. It is my experience that this never repays the teacher what she deserves and sometimes does not repay her expenses. She is not in the position of novelists who sell film rights, for example. You are lucky to get a variety of book options - at reasonable costs (most of the time), considering that the number of copies printed is low. It is because self-publishers and publishers do not think a lot of books will be sold that books go out-of-print so quickly. In the discussion of The Lace Guild's (UK) bulletins, I think you should know that they are 64 pages - double the pages of the International Old Lacers' Inc. bulletins (USA) The most recent OIDFA (International, based in France) bulletin was 40 pages, printed in French/English. So, really 20 pages of readable content for most members. Many other nations also have guilds and bulletins in the languages of the countries, and I do want to acknowledge them and encourage lacemakers of those countries to join locally. Please support your guilds. They sponsor lace conventions and lace days. They often have extensive libraries from which you can borrow out-of-print lace books. It is through their bulletins that you get the most current lace news, research, patterns/prickings, competition information, pictures of laces that may be very new inspiration to you, book reviews, museum and travel information, advertising from lace suppliers which gives you a good chance of finding them, and - very important - the possibility of broadening your friendship base. Kind regards, Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center
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