Here are the various quotes I have collected over the years.
From Wings of
Fire by Charles Todd (copy write 1998), Takes place in
England just after WW1
Inspector Ian Rutledge is rushing through a small village in the
rain.
âRutledge turned, crossed over to the nearest shop. In the small
window
fronting the road there was a collection of ribbons and laces
behind a spill
of colorful embroidery thread, packets of needles, and
an array of
handkerchiefs that reminded him of those heâd seen in
Oliviaâs room. As he
opened the door, a gust of wind and rain nearly
jerked the knob out of his
hand.
Startled, a middle-aged woman looked up from a cushion of bobbins
and threads and a half-finished lace collar on her lap. âCould I
help you,
sir?â she asked, trying hastily to get to her feet.
âNo, sit down,
Iâm too wet to come in. I need directions,
thatâs all.â
She sank
back into her chair, somehow preventing the bobbins from
rolling to every
point of the compass. Then he saw that like the
Belgian nuns heâd come
across during the war, she had them pinned in
place. âTo where?â
âI
once tried to make lace â which has been a great obsession of
women â
unsexy. And I achieved it.â
Miuccia Prada
âIt is difficult to see
why lace should be so expensive; it is
mostly holes.â
Mary Wilson Little
A response from an English costumer was equally quotable.
"Yes, but have
you any idea how hard it is to get those holes to
stick together!â
âI
consider lace to be one of the prettiest imitations ever made of
the fantasy
of nature; lace always evokes for me those incomparable
designs which the
branches and leaves of trees embroider across the
sky, and I do not think that
any invention of the human spirit could
have a more graceful or precise
origin."
Coco Chanel, April 29, 1939
âwhatever improves the lace and
makes it more beautiful is right."
Sister Judith
âGreek, sir, is like
lace; every man gets as much of it as he can."
Dr. Samuel Johnson (of
First English Dictionary Fame)
âThe real good of a piece of lace, then,
you will find, is that it
should show, first, that the designer of it had a
pretty fancy; next,
that the maker of it had fine fingers; lastly, that the
wearer of it
has worthiness or dignity enough to obtain what is difficult to
obtain, and common sense enough not to wear it on all occasions.â
John
Ruskin
ââOut of the way! We are in the throes of an exceptional
emergency! This is no occasion for sport- there is lace at stake!"
(Ms.
Pole)â
â Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford
-
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/
