Dear Spiders, I haven't posted in such a long time that I have had to haul out the e-mail I received when I re-joined Arache in 2005 to work out the appropriate e-mail address for my post. I'm just writing to say how much I'm enjoying the discussion and links on this topic - I find classification systems that help organise information (or grounds) into logical groups really useful to help understand (and remember) things, but haven't done anything more complex than basic arithmetic since leaving secondary school (and sadly, didn't do the highest level of maths, so missed out on group theory) and a mathematical approach is outside of my scope of expertise. Like Nancy, I'm thrilled that someone with the requisite intellectual skills and education is taking it on. I have roughly drafted my own classification of roseground variations, which is pretty simplistic in comparison. I'm still trying to work out how to fit diagonal honeycomb (which is structurally a roseground) into this system. One of the grounds Veronika has worked in third bookmark sample in her Photostream is the same structure as diagonal honeycomb with a direction reversal after every row - I'm not sure I like the appearance, but I'm fascinated by the construction. One of the properties that makes some of these grounds more aethetically pleasing than others is not what the threads are doing, but the negative spaces resulting from the thread movements. Other ways of creating interesting effects with the negative space in Torchon lace is the use of what I call compound grounds, when 2 different, but familiar, pattern elements are put together to form a new ground, which I first saw done in "Church Lace Today" (Margaret Jeans, 1988, ?self-published). An early attempt to classify Torchon lace grounds was developed by M.J. Geers-Vermeulen (De techniek van de kloskant - Stropkant deel II) and published by the Kantcentrum, Brugge in 1993 - in 4 languages, including English, os linguistically accessible to a large audience. Her system is based on the number or pairs used for each pattern unit and I'm not sure that it is compatible with a mathematical approach - but some of the accompanying patterns demonstrating the use of the grounds as part of a complete pattern are just gorgeous. Have probably rambled sufficiently at this stage. Best Wishes, Christine Johnson (Sydney, Australia)
- 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/
