Liz R brings up the point about how historically, lacemakers did not have the benefit of detailed diagrams and would have had to keep the designs in their head, even for complex lace like Binche. Devon and I were just talking about this the other day at the Yale lace event and it was boggling our minds.
Simpler types of lace like guipure would have been easy enough to figure out but for a wide piece of something like Binche or Mechlin would be incredibly difficult! Does anyone have further insight on following complex patterns without a diagram? And when we think diagrams evolved? I saw a student's workbook from the turn of the century on display at the Rococo Lace Manufactory in Brugge that used color coding so it was at least in practice by then. Would lacemakers have worked out the pattern by drawing it perhaps? Or was it really all in their heads? Any primary sources for this? Stimulating conversation as always! Best, Elena - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
