I'm inclined to agree with Marianne as our lace takes many, many hours to produce and people just wouldn't pay a reasonable price, even based on the minimum hourly wage recognised here in the UK! I occasionally have my car cleaned whilst shopping in my local M & S store and it costs me £7.00p and takes the man about half an hour. What skill is required to clean a car compared to that of making a beautiful piece of Floral Bucks, Point de Gaze etc which has taken many months, sometimes years to produce, and would anyone be prepared to pay the worker £14.00p an hour for those many hours of work - I don't think so, in fact I know so!
When teaching for the Springetts some years ago, every September they would hold a Supplier's Fair where all of us tutors who taught for them, would be at one end of the huge sports hall, demonstrating our particular lacemaking skills and with a display of our work, enabling lacemakers to see what we had to offer and enrol on a course. I recall a young man coming up to me and asking how much was the stumpwork wedding scene that I had on display? I told him it was not for sale as people just would not pay a reasonable price for the number of hours it had taken me to work. He was determined to have this piece, got himself a chair and sat down beside me, chatting away for a while. He then asked me how much it would cost if it were for sale? I replied that it had taken me six months to work and what would his salary be for six months employment? He quickly stood up and went on his way! Wouldn't it be a very sad state of affairs if very few of the younger generation had the skills of well known lacemakers such as Barbara Underwood, Yvonne Schele, Ulrike Lohr, Pat Read, Geraldine Stott, Brigitte Cook and many, many more, who have all worked so hard to write/publish books on their particular skills, for the benefit of those less dedicated/talented. We do need the younger generation to feel as passionate as these ladies all have been about their craft, so that it will continue for future generations and not disappear into obscurity. It is just as difficult for an artist/painter to make a living wage, as these items are 'luxury' items which most families cannot afford to buy and are not essential items. The lacemakers of the past who actually worked these beautiful laces, were not the ones who received the large sums of money they commanded, neither did painters such as Rubens, Van Dyke etc. They all struggled in their lifetime to make enough money to survi! ve and it was not until many years after their death that their skills/expertise was recognised, thus commanding extraordinarily high prices, and justly so, as they are rare and beautiful works of art. We do think twice perhaps about buying a new car or at least replacing our old one with a second-hand car, but just think how many thousands/millions of a particular model are produced, and how much we have to pay for them, but they are essentials and we need them to travel to our place of employment where we earn sufficient money to pay our bills and survive. I think we have to accept the fact that it just isn't possible to earn a LIVING wage from lacemaking. We may be able to reward ourselves in earning a wage of some kind, but would it be sufficient to save up a deposit for a home, pay a mortgage, run a car, feed and clothe ourselves I wonder? Catherine Barley UK Catherine Barley Needlelace www.catherinebarley.com ----Original message---- from Marianne Gallant Really, to replace the people that we are losing, we need designers and teachers, not 'artists'. And we should not be letting them think they can make money selling their creations, but they can by selling the patterns. Knitters, crocheters, quilters and for that matter tatters don't make a lot of money selling their finished products, I hear them all complaining that people don't want to 'pay' for labour, often not even enough for the materials. But they have no problem selling the patterns, and/or writing books. It just takes too many hours to create and item, which means you can't get even minimum wage for your labour. *Marianne* Marianne Gallant - 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/
