Hi All, I've been meaning to write for a while and since it's quiet I might as well do it now.
I got a new book "The Borris Lace Collection - A Unique Irish Needlelace" by Marie Laurie and arachne's own Annette Meldrum!! It came out in 2010 and the ISBN is 9781863514071 (ppk.). Borris Lace is a tape lace made with a commercially woven tape. My main lace love is Battenberg/Renaissance and Borris is a relative. The book is fantastic. They do have projects, how-to make the lace and stitch directions. The patterns are "naïve" in design, some remind me of Chagall paper cutouts. Very charming!! The history and scholarship is also fantastic!! The authors were given the opportunity to study and catalogue the Borris lace collection. I believe it says somewhere that this is the most thoroughly documented lace industry in Ireland. There is a whole collection at Borris House in Borris,County Carlow, Ireland. Also all the documentation of the business side of things - the making by the lacemakers, the patterns and their meanings, the pattern books for selling lace - it's fascinating! The lace was made from 1846 to 1960s and it centered around Borris House. It was started to "relieve the hardship which followed the Great Famine by making the poor women of Ireland and their households more economically self-reliant and independent of charity". It's a wonderful book and I highly recommend it!! I had put off ordering it because I thought it would be expensive as another book I want from Australia is. Well I'm sorry I didn't pursue it a little further when it came out. Barnes & Noble and Amazon carry it for a very reasonable price and I had a coupon! The book feeds both my interests - charming lace and wonderful scholarship into the history of lace!! Jane in Vermont, USA in the midst of Spring!! [email protected] - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
