> > > Hi there > > For my part, I just got home from a trip to western Pennsylvania (the great > > Pennsic War, for those who know of it) where I taught a beginner 16th c. > > bobbin lace course. > > > > As someone who went to Pennsic once upon a time, I was perusing the class > list this year, and I saw the bobbin lace classes listed. I was hoping > that > someone who had taught or taken the classes would post here! I'm curious - > what references and sources did you use to learn about early lacemaking? > Do > you have prickings/diagrams for early work? I'd like to learn more about > bobbin lace in this early period, and I wouldn't mind replicating a piece > or > two. > > Cheers, > Gina > > - - > To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to > [email protected] > My big three are Le Pompe, 1559 (Levey, Santina M. and Payne, Patricia C.; , ISBN 0-903585-16-2), Nuw Modelbook also called Fascinating Bobbin Lace (Claire Burkhard, ISBN 3-258-03610-1) and Patterns of Fashion #4, which I don't have annotated for my bibliography yet. I also refer people to http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/lace.html, which has scans of the Parasole patterns which were printed not too long after 1600 (the SCA cutoff date, for those who may not know). As for *how* it was made, I do much the same as Tamara - squint at things a lot :D Le Pompe and Nuw Modelbook both have reasonable discussions in them as to how the authors perceive some of the patterns to have been made. Some of what I do is applied common sense - which I can't really describe, it's just a sense of what looks right in context of what I've already seen. Like half stitch - haven't seen it, none of the woodcuts show anythign that could really be interpreted as it, so I don't use it. I still need to see Rosemary's new book - no one at Pennsic had a copy :(
As for picots, I confess Tamara nearly gave me a heart attack when I read that "they don't exist" - that's patently untrue! They're right there in the woodcuts!! Fortunately, the next sentence or two cleared things up. For me, I would consider a picot to be any small decorative loop on the side of a lace element. That would include what Tamara described as false picots and winkie pins, a term I confess I'm not overly familiar with. I tend to make more modern three twist wrap back around the pin style picots when I'm using linen thread because it's what I'm practiced at, but it's only one of about 5 different methods I'm familiar with - and that's why I don't even get into them in a 2 hour class. No time! But the twist-pin under one-twist is pretty much ideal for the metallic threads - they stand out quite nicely on their own. Someday hopefully soon I'll get my website into some sort of shape so I can post all my notes there. If only so *I* can find them more easily. It'll include notes on how to "read" the woodcuts for people more used to modern patterns - it's not at all difficult, but when you're used to getting working directions with your pattern, it can be unsettling to work from nothing but what is, essentially, a pricking. Hope that answered your question. Some century I'll pay my dues to IOLI and find out that Tamara and I are just recreating each other's wheel (:D) but for now I'll just be happy with getting people interested in lace at all :) Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions I can hopefully answer. Chris (All hail the gender-neutral name!) in Chicago PS Just for the record, I'm female. I get letters addressed to Mr Vail all the time, however, so I just get a good chuckle and move on. Even in junior high, at graduation rehearsal, my vice-principal expanded the name off the card as 'Christopher' until he saw me heading up to the stage with a big smirk on my face. I'm enough of a tomboy that the short name fits me just fine. > -- > Always proactively untwist octagonal hippopotomus pants. > Ozy & Millie http://www.ozyandmillie.net/2000/om20000809.html > - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
