Of course this all falls down when you consider Buck thumpers... Why? Many of my "South Bucks" style bobbins are quite small and light in weight, much smaller than those often thought of as "Thumpers", and of course none of them have the weight of a spangle. Also, often the old spangles were much heavier than the modern ones, (and are usually changed when I buy old bobbins) so that would make the unspangled bobbins even lighter by comparison.
Before you all throw up your hands in horror, I buy bobbins to use, not to look at. I don't believe that the spangle on the bobbin is very often likely to be the original one anyway, but I do keep the old beads separate from new ones and only use old beads on old bobbins; I mostly just need to make the spangle smaller to get a more functional spangle for my lacemaking style. This has the added bonus of leaving beads over, so when I buy old bobbins which have lost their spangle, I have authentic beads to use. To tie in with what Louise was saying, it is possible that one of the reasons why a some of the old bobbins have almost out of proportion heavy spangles (now, or since photography at least) was because the style/size of bobbins were originally used with finer thread, and the weight of the spangles were increased as the thread became thicker. There seem to be too many with these big, clunky spangles for it to be just someone's taste; I feel there has to be a logical reason for it. These were tools of the trade, not the fashion accessories our bobbins mostly are now. But as for the modern bobbins being thinner than the old ones, I don't necessarily agree with that. Many of my plain "Old Maid" wooden bobbins are very fine. It may just be that over the years these bobbins have been more vulnerable to breakage and loss than their more sturdy companions. Jacquie in a slightly foggy, cold, dank Stamford, just 50 or so miles up the A1 from Louise in foggy cold dank Cambridge. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
