Before the 20th century few lacemakers anywhere were educated, and most could not even read. However, they were able to produce laces we admire and avidly collect today.
Please consider how little was available to anyone who wanted to learn about lace after the two 20th C. World Wars. No matter which nation. We have had some powerful role models, and it is doubtful they thought math and related school subjects were especially important to their lacemaking success. As to her comments (below my signature), Sheila Brown had, by 1990, written a 96-page hardback book published by Batsford - "Free Lace Patterns". Lace Guild libraries will have it. Further, between 2000 and 2002 Sheila and her late husband Alan Brown published reprints of four 19th C. government surveys by Alan Cole, reporting on the conditions under which lacemakers worked in England and Ireland. Making these easily available provided numerous lace book authors with verifiable documentation of a period in history when lacemaking was most important to the survival of many people. (Alan Cole was the youngest son of Sir Henry Cole, credited with being the creator of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Search Henry Cole in Arachne archives for more information.) Thank you for your devotion to lace, Sheila! Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center -------------------------------------------------------- In a message dated 7/8/2013 This discussion has been very interesting, however for those of us who came to lace in the middle '70s there were not many 'textbooks' around, certainly in English. My introduction to lace was a Council evening class with Tordis Berndt as our tutor - 20+ of us, in September 1976.. The only literature/books available were the series from the Lace Guild, Margaret Maidment from approx. 1910, and a few other booklets. Tordis also had her university notes , 2 Swedish booklets with the number of bobbins required, photos etc. but no prickings. I think the need to work these out onto graph paper, whether one was maths inclined or not did not come into it, it had to be done. But, one learnt how important it was to be able to follow the thread pairs through the design. This then leads one to the use of colours for different stitches before the international colour code came into being. Certainly I have found those 2 early years as having laid a good foundation for the years ahead. It has also probably helped when one passed on to designing, not just in geometric but in the 'free' laces so many of us now do. Sheila - 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/
