More comment: Then as now fashion was an industry. The management of ruffs, would that have been a source of employment?
I suppose flax gel could have been used as a stiffener, it was certainly used in handspinning for sizing the fibre as it was being spun. The flax wheels (for spinning) often had a shallow wooden dish attached to near the intake, so the spinner could touch the fingers to the gel (flax seed + water = a gel), whilst drawing out the flax strands into thread. Flax gel can be painted on the warp threads before they are threaded to a handloom, too, to 'size' the warp. In my limited experience with it, it doesn't take much humidity to counteract the stiffness, and perhaps it wasn't refined enough for starching lace? On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 8:55 PM, Susan Reishus <[email protected]>wrote: > ... > Then when you think about cleaning and starching and shaping ruffs...seems > nearly as tedious as making it! (Just kidding!) > ... > Also, it is interesting that no one has brought up flax as a stiffener. It > is > -- Bev in Shirley BC, near Sooke on beautiful Vancouver Island, west coast of Canada - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
