This subject has come up a couple of times recently. One very useful exercise we did at college when I was doing my City & Guilds, and which I repeated some years later with the ladies I was teaching, was to make a sampler of various methods of stiffening. The one thing I did differently with my ladies was to get them to write the date on the top of the page!
We used machine lace, both cotton and synthetic, and cut it into short lengths to which various different stiffeners were applied - sugar water (two different strength solutions), commercial fabric stiffeners, blind sprays, spray starch, potato/rice water, hairspray, PVA glue (water based, neat and dilute) and whatever else we could lay hands on. One piece of each lace was left untouched as a "control" piece. Once stiffened, these samples were attached by an end to a sheet of paper on which was recorded the type of stiffener, brand name (if any), dilution (in the case of PVA and sugar water), and whether the lace was cotton or synthetic. For silk or linen, I would suggest using small sample pieces that you have no further use for, or possibly making a strip that you can cut down - though you are unlikely to want to stiffen silk (it rather defeats the object of it's soft draping quality!), linen would probably behave much the same as cotton (both being cellulose). This sampler allows you to see what level of stiffness you will get if you use a specific method, and to see what effect (any discolouration, progressive lack of stiffness, etc) time and storage have. Of those I used on my original sample sheet, the Winfield (Woolworth's own brand - you can tell how long ago this was!) blind spray started blackening the synthetic lace about three or four years on. If you are making anything that is to be counted as an heirloom, do not use any stiffener that cannot be removed easily, and consider whether or not you are creating a nice tasty snack for a passing moth grub. Work a small sample of lace in your chosen thread and stiffen it with your chosen stiffener - this will show whether or not you will be happy with the result, and save the problems of trial and error, possibly several times over, if you leave it until you have finished your lace - you don't want to spoil the end product, after all. Several years ago, The Lace Guild had one of their Triennial Exhibitions - Myth or Mystery. With a week to go before the closing date, I finally had a Eureka moment, and came up with an idea for a rainbow choker - plaited lace using rainbow colours of embroidery thread. I had decided to use dilute PVA, and with not too much time on my hands didn't try a sample first - PVA solution filled the holes as it dried, despite using a paintbrush to apply. At that point, it very nearly ended up in the bin. I decided to see if the glue would wash out (it did!) and used the age old solution of sugar water instead. This gave the desired result, and held the plaits in place despite the choker being hung from one end in a museum display cabinet for the three months the exhibition was on. (I have since washed the sugar out for storage). Washing out and re-stiffening once I got away with; had I had to do that several times the structure of the lace would have been at risk. In the competition! , the choker won a Medal of Excellence! Jane Partridge - 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/
