Dear Lace Experts, Reading your responses to methods of learning to make lace, I really have to hop back in the discussion. People in very low-population areas do not have the opportunity to watch a live demonstration of lacemaking, and do not have easy access to someone with enough lace-making knowledge to be able to teach. This is an international list, with participants from a variety of demographics and economic ability to spend on travel, lessons, books, equipment, etc. Please, please remember this when you participate. Let's make a simple comparison of population per square mile: Maine is a state with a population of approx. 1.3-million in 33,000+ square miles (quick google search) England is a nation with a population of approx. 50-million in 50,000+ square miles (quick google search) You may want to plug in the population/square miles of your geographic area for comparisons. We (in Maine) just had the example of a person desperately trying to find a bobbin lace maker in our state. She finally found a tatter, who is a member of our quiet group of Lacemakers of Maine, and she is at this very minute far from her home with Tess (60 miles from me), learning to make lace. We meet in homes, do not publicize ourselves, and money does not exchange hands. We do what we can, when we can. The larger lace community, with more resources at their disposal needs to know that there are places in our world where finding anyone who knows about bobbin lace (or any lace) seems impossible. They have computers, but it still seems difficult to find anyone - even by Googling - if **you don't know what to search by**. When they do find us, we need a variety of options for teaching lace making for these isolated people, and for shut-ins, etc. That is why I always recommend the Springett workable solution that you can share with a total novice. The additional problem is one of language. Membership on Arachne illustrates that we are not reaching lace lovers in vast areas of South America, Asia, and Africa -- probably because of language and economics. We have come a long way due to widespread use of computers, but there are still opportunities for reaching people interested in learning the skills we love. Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center
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