Dear Alice, Thanks so much for your response. You are affirming, uplifting, and, you gave a lot of information in response to my questions. They were not simple ones, and your responses say a lot.
Lyn in Lancaster, PA, US, where it's only 81F, 24.5C, but a breeze, no glaring sun, and no thunderstorms. Not bad at all. -----Original Message----- >From: [email protected] >Sent: Jun 21, 2011 1:23 PM >To: Lyn Bailey <[email protected]> >Cc: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [lace] Lace yardage -speed, long > >You have raised several interesting topics. I've been making lace for 18 >years. I started when I was working full time so I had limited time to put on >lacemaking. I've done more since retiring. > >Lacemaking is not fast. Some people are faster than others...true for most >activities. They move their fingers faster. The fastest lacemaker in our >local group learned in Belgium from a teacher who expected people to work >fast. Practice is the key. A bit of urging from a teacher can stimulate the >faster practice. > >Yardage is certainly repetitive. If you are making a pattern just for the >practice, and have no goal in mind, you might be ready to quit with a foot or >two or three. If you are making it for your granddaughter's wedding veil, >there is a bit more incentive. I like to do a variety of laces. My longest >yardage piece was three yards. I have ended some at 12 or 15 inches if I lost >interest in the design. There is always a yardage piece on my travel pillow >so I can take it with me at moment's notice, or use at demos if I have nothing >else suitable at that moment. > >The old-time professional lacemakers were in it for a living. If they weren't >making lace, they would be in the fields or kitchens or scrubbing floors or >whatever. A warm, dry lace factory was more pleasant that some of the >alternatives. But it was not easy. They depended on the sun for light and >worked sun up to sun down. It made for long hours in the summertime. This >was long before labor laws. > >Children started as early as age six. They could wind the bobbins used by the >lacemakers. When they got old enough (big enough?) to sit at a lace pillow, >they started with the simpler patterns. When yardage lace was gathered onto >garments, mistakes in a pattern did not show. No time was spent taking out >mistakes. Just get back to the pattern and keep going. > >How much can be made in a day? Well... depends on the pattern, the thread, >and the skill of the lacemaker. When viewers at a demo ask..and they WILL >always ask...we say "a square inch an hour". That is a general average for >medium thread in Torchon. I also add a comment that thicker thread will cover >the pattern faster, and thin thread or a complicated pattern will take longer. > (I may have a piece of lace made with very tiny thread nearby, and comment >that it took four/five times longer because of the tiny thread.) If a >lacemaker worked 12-14 hours on a summer day, with the same pattern all the >time, she might have done up to 20-25 square inches. This is a guess. I have >no documented evidence one way or the other. > >I have a basic rose pattern that I have made many times. The first time I >made it, I took 14 hours. I can now make it in six. I also had an experience >recently when I made a collar as a gift. I spent three months on it, and made >two mistakes. I wasn't willing to give away a flawed item, so made a second >one which took only three weeks. Knowing the pattern well made a big >difference in time spent doing it. > >Know a pattern can only come from using it...which takes you back to PRACTICE. > Just doing it constantly, persistently, determinedly (you get the picture) >leads to skill ... i.e. competence and speed. > >Relate it to playing a musical instrument. If a person practices for only >half an hour a week, no skill will be developed. As a kid, I was required to >spend an hour a day at the piano. I could play church hymns and general >music, but was never suggested as a concert pianist. Those people spend 6-8 >hours a day at the piano. > >Don't even try to equal the speed of a lady in Belgium who has probably been >making lace for 50 years and has done that pattern many times. Just >appreciate her skill. Try to make your lace every day...even if just for 15 >minutes. Let your fingers and brain get used to the movement sequences, and >switching between the basic sequences. Speed will come with experience, but >let it come naturally. Take pleasure in the movement of the bobbins, and >watching the pattern develop. Enjoy the products of your work, and show them >off. > >By the way... if you have to work on a higher table, try to raise the seating. > Use a cushion, or stack two chairs together (if they stack). Most hotel and >convention center seating stacks. The chair/table height must fit you >properly to prevent back/shoulder/neck aches. > >Most of all...have fun with your lace. > >Alice in Oregon ... with our first hot day on the first day of summer. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
