I loved the points from the old files.
You are correct - we need to save this information and not let it be
lost to future generations. Some days I get overwhelmed when I start to
look at the very small collection I have. I can not imagine the files
you have.
Just know not everyone is not interested.
Shell - who is working on the same lace bookmark again as I keep making
mistakes!
On 8/22/2013 5:18 PM, [email protected] wrote:
So quiet.
Since there is no interest in my collections, I have started the painful
process of purging. (It sort of reminds of what happened in the English
lace-making villages, when all their lace equipment ended up being destroyed
-- we tsk tsk now, but probably no one was interested in saving those things
at that time.) This is not a task to leave for an executor unfamiliar
with the subject matter.
Difficult. Some files were saved from as far back as 1952, when I was
just starting high school. Others are even older, and were collected through
years of antiquing. They are examples of what can happen when a passion
for embroidery, lace, and hand-sewing has never faltered. Other people move
from basket weaving to macrame to paper-making to gardening to etc. without
much focus, but that was never my blueprint!
The paper files have included every single newsletter from various groups,
and document what we were doing to keep these skills and these aspects of
womens' history alive. Reflects focused interest on the 2nd half of the
20th C.
There is little mail on Arachne, and I found a few tidbits in some quite
old Embroiderers' Guild newsletters that might amuse, to share. Following
is one entry for each day of the next week. Some are informative. Others
are supposed to be amusing.
1. Hand work should be hand laundered!
2. Keep a set of plastic embroidery hoops for pre-treating stains.
Stretch the fabric on the hoops (this is not about lace); it is much easier to
remove spots when material is taut.
3. Warm corn meal (uncooked, of course) brushed over needlework will
usually pick up most soil (furrier's trick). Good hint, if you live in an area
where there are dust storms.
4. To remove dust from unglazed framed needlework, crumble stale white
bread onto needlework. Leave on for several minutes. Shake off and grayness
should come off with the crumbs. (After this, Jeri would suggest having a
friend hold a piece of screening over the needlework frame while you
vacuum to remove any crumb particles that did not shake off. Some vacuum hoses
have an adjustment so there is not excessive pull. You should use the
adjustment, and securely tape a piece of machine-made net over the nozzle. You
don't want to pull loose stitches, beads, lace appliques, etc. into the
vacuum cleaner.)
5. A stitcher's husband stepped on a needle. She looked at him in
disgust as she pulled the bloody needle out and said, "You BENT it!"
6. A stitcher's friend, an archeologist, was asked for an opinion of her
Greek needle lace sampler. She explained that it was a lost art from an
island in the Aegean Sea. The friend's comment was, "My dear....sometimes
there is a reason for these arts to be lost."
7. When I was giving a lecture, I wore an antique lace shawl. After
commenting that it was at least 100 years old, one of the students asked, "Did
you do the work yourself?"
Jeri Ames in Maine USA
Lace and Embroidery Resource Center
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Smile!
Shell
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have
imagined." - Henry David Thoreau
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