"My email sends out an automatic message. Arachne members, please ignore it. I read your emails."I remember getting the names of lace suppliers from the backs of lacemaking books. That's how I found Holly van Sciver, among others. I had been making lace, off and on as life allowed, for 15 years before I met another lacemaker. I had been making lace for 20 years before I went to a lace day, invited by Holly. With the advent of the internet, all that became much easier. I found a 'local' lace group, all sorts of lacemakers, a number of suppliers, local lacemakers. I went to my first lace day where I took a class 25 years after I started making lace. Before that I neither had the time nor the money to get to a laceday. Now googling 'bobbin lace' gets all sorts of resources. I can find lacemakers and sites to view lace all over the world by going online. With the internet I am part of a global community of like minded people.
I still remember my beginnings as a lacemaker who qualified for food stamps. While lace making is not a route to wealth, or even much income, it gives great pleasure. Nothing can take away from getting together with lacemakers in person, for Americans usually monthly with the lace group and lace days and conventions. Lace days and conventions can easily be beyond what the budget will allow. With online classes, talks, meetings, all sorts of things can open up. People disabled, whose maturity makes it difficult to travel, whose budget doesn't allow for airfare and hotel rooms to take a particular class, online meetings, classes, can provide these people at least some of the joy healthier and more well endowed people spend their discretionary income on. With the advent of online classes, which probably will be fine tuned as we get in the swing of them, many more will have access to teachers, meetings, and the joys of lacemaking will spread. Lyn from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, where we are having a lovely early fall day. Leaves are still green, short sleeves still work, but shorts instead of trousers are optional. "My email sends out an automatic message. Arachne members, please ignore it. I read your emails." - 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/
