Sorry, I'm a little slow to add to this thread as I've been busy getting my things together for a lace demo I'm doing on Saturday in Duvall, as part of the annual quilt show hosted by the local Quilt shop. Locating samples and getting my thoughts and necessary equipment together has been my focus the past couple of weeks - I just hope the weather delivers a sunny Fall day, so that I can sit out on Main Street (with a couple of LPS members joining me for a few hours) and make lace for the hopefully admiring throngs (I'm thinking positive here! :-) ).
Spangling: Most of my bobbins are spangled with fishing line, and it's held up pretty well under all sorts of interesting conditions from travelling on travelling pillows on aircraft and on road trips to being on pillows packed for relocation from Denver to WA. The fishing line has held up pretty well in the dry air of Denver (which at a mile high, the moisture is sucked out of everything!). I think I've only had a couple of spangles break in about 34 years of lacemaking. I've had one or 2 knots come undone, but they are on older spangles, where mum and I would put a dab of glue on the knot to hold it, and the glue dried out and fell off or was 'helped' off by a feathered friend who used to like to chew on the spangles. I now run my ends back through the spangles in opposing directions and they seem to be holding well. I think the spangles that did break were a lighter weight line that may have been used on a preassembled spangle that I bought. I use a 10lb line and it seems to be doing just fine. I also have some that are spangled with wire and there is a variety of gauges used. The lightest wire is on my birdcage spangle and so far it's holding and it's probably been close to 20 years since I made the spangle. Some of the most robust wire spangles are on my antique bobbins, and they look to be a pretty heavy gauge (some almost look like it was a bent pin that was used, but that seems like it would be a waste of pins in that time, but I could be wrong). The bending of the wire isn't particularly fancy, but it sure seems to have lasted. Seems like durability may be affected by any number of factors, and personal preference. Cheers, Helen, in Duvall, WA, where the Liquid Sunshine is present along with the bourgeoning fall colours. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
