Further to my previous email I am a theorist - I have always believed that I could do anything if I had a good book on it. Boy, did I study the highway code!!! As I started a new type of lace I would use a book to master the particular technique then one day my mum wanted a small piece of lace to put into her dolls house and I said (foolish child that I am) just go and look through my books and patterns and I'll make whatever you want. She picked one of the patterns for a Bucks broach in Lace. No instructions. So englarged the picture of the lace and got out Practical Skills in Lace by Bridget M Cook and Cook and Stotts Bobbin Lace Stitches, wound my bobbins and made a beautiful piece of lace. Mum was so impressed I was commisssioned to make a similar one for her friend's doll's house. I was in a strange way liberated by this experience. Yes, if I want to quickly start a piece I may use a diagram and for remembering a particular type of lace that I haven't made for a while I may get out one of the manuals. I know that binche is notorious but I think it's less that we don't think in the right way, less that it's difficult and more that we don't spend every hour of our day making lace. L
Kind Regards Liz Baker thelace...@btinternet.com My chronicle of my bobbins can be found at my website: http://thelacebee.weebly.com/ --- On Fri, 4/3/11, Alex Stillwell <alexstillw...@talktalk.net> wrote: From: Alex Stillwell <alexstillw...@talktalk.net> Subject: [lace] Lace patterns To: lace@arachne.com Date: Friday, 4 March, 2011, 17:56 Dear Arachnids I always worry about the modern trend of making lace fillowing route map charts. This is only another form of 'making lace by numbers'. A true lacemaker is able to 'read a pricking', i.e. be able to look at a pricking and interpret what to do by looking at the relationship between the pinholes and also to have some idea of the characteristics of the lace so as to be able to judge when to use cloth rather than half stitch and interpret which filling to use from the pinholes. I was teaching lacemaking before Pam Nottingham's first book came out and I have always taught techniques rather than patterns. One of my students who, much to my dismay, had taken to working from route maps attended one of Pam's weekends and returned somewhat disgruntled. Pam had refused to teach her Floral Bucks until she could work from a geometrical Bucks pricking without any other information; the fact that she was following one of Pam's patterns did not help her. I was delighted that she then started working on reading prickings. Route maps are fine if you wish to make a complicated piece without the possibily of getting any help, but try to understand the resons for using particular techniques and bear in mind that many route maps only show one of many different ways of working the pricking, that there may be different interpretations and that many route maps can be improved on. I wish more would become true lacemakers and read their prickings, rather than make lace by numbers. Understanding prickings is also essential before you can design and drafting your own prickings. Happy lacemaking and designing your own lace Alex - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003 - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
