Dear All It is of course difficult to work out how a textile was made just by looking at it, but don't forget that the basic tools for making something can be used in many different ways. Just because something is made with lace bobbins on a lace pillow does not ensure that it is made using cloth or half stitches or whatever we would now use with a standard foot-side. The braid used in Chinese braid embroidery is now typically made on a set-up spookily similar to a modern lace pillow. While a pillow as such is not used, just a surface on which the braid is formed without pins, and a roller at the back for the braid to be wound on, the bobbins are lengths of bamboo with a hook or a notch at the top to hold the thread, and a spangle, of coins, washers or beads to weight it at the other. The actual braid produced can be fancy, with complex weaves and colours, but basically has a bias weave. One major difference from bobbin lace is that a thread can pass over two or more other threads at a time - something I don't think we ever do, though I suppose we could have a twill weave in an area of cloth. The best book on the subject of which I know is Jacqui Carey's Chinese Braid Embroidery ISBN 0 9523225 6 0, published by Carey Company of Ottery St Mary, Devon, UK in 2007. It shows how the braid is made and used, and any bobbin lacemaker could easily replicate it using his (or her) equipment; you could easily make a useful customised trim for another project with it. The ingenuity of the workers in improvising apparatus is amazing - anything from beautifully made stands produced by a father or husband to an ordinary wicker basket. The insights into the social side of the work and workers, and how it is affected by modern events - synthetic materials, machine-made tapes, the tourist trade - make the book well worth a read by themselvs. It also shows how similar braids can, and were, made by finger looping - with a sample made and sewn into a 17th century English instruction book. There is also a picture of a braidmaker from Oman making a braid called tili. She is using a small bolster on a stand, no pins, and it looks as though her threads are still on the original reels, secured by a half hitch - one way of minimising joins and avoiding bobbin-winding! I sometimes think that the only way some mysteries will be solved is with the use of a time-machine, though I can't see the BBC extending the Historic Farming series to Dr Who and the lacemakers. leonard...@yahoo.com
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