When I was working on the Castle class locomotive and tender 'picture' I made for my City & Guilds, using Branscombe techniques (Branscombe Point is a Devon tape lace (as opposed to braid lace, which is the name we use for bobbin made laces of the ilk) similar to Battenberg but uses a greater range of filling stitches to attempt to resemble Honiton lace) I had to make most of the tape myself. This was because I wanted to work in colour, and so whereas I needed green, silver, black, gold and red, could only buy black, white or ecru Branscombe tape; and all attempts at dying the tape failed to give a satisfactory result. Using the same thread to make the tape as I was going to use for the needlelace fillings meant there was no difference in thickness of the two areas. I did buy a card of black tape (from Tom in Belgium, who some may remember). The rest was made in the lengths I needed it - not made in one length and cut up afterwards. I used Madeira Tanne 30 (now replaced by Cotona 30), with four passive pairs and three workers (so as to keep a straight edge on both sides). Another difference between Branscombe and Battenberg is that the tapes are slightly different - Battenberg has a heavier gathering thread on each side (similar to a coarse thread or gimp) which is used to pull the tape into shape; Branscombe tape is gathered by using a needle and finer thread to whip (overcast) along the inner curved edges so holding them in shape. The tape then loses all its wrinkles like magic when it is dampened and pressed. I've noticed a number of emails I haven't received lately - which is why I'm replying to Donna's question using Adele's post - the one from Jacquie Tinch about the International Lace Day didn't come through, and I'm resigned to the fact that Jeri's posts won't get to me again. It would seem that 'live' (which comes under the umbrella of Outlook.com) has the same view as yahoo when it comes to other service providers, a problem I never had with Demon! (The reason we changed was down to total lack of internet service). I would suggest that if anyone emails me privately and doesn't get a response, if they are in the Facebook Lacemakers' group, they message me via Facebook to check I've received their email.
Jane [email protected] > Subject: Re: [lace] [LACE] battenberg tape > From: [email protected] > Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2015 17:12:35 -0700 > > You could, very easily. > > > On Jun 15, 2015, at 3:49 PM, Donna Fousek <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Has anyone made their own battenberg tape? Been think of trying it. Or > > would it be better to buy pre made. > > - 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/
