Hello all,
I suspect that this effort has taken me some 20 years to come to fruition,
and it would not have ever happened if it were not for some very generous
collectors, knowledgeable people and of course all you arachnids who helped
me along. Particularly in the early days when we did more than a few team
efforts to learn the practicalities around this subject.
Of course I do not make lace, so I relied heavily upon you all and you came
to the party every time.
You will see by the introduction to the new web site my poor admin skills
have been very much in evidence when it has come to individual recognition
of many of your contributions to the document. Please accept my humble
apologies to some of my helpers who are sadly anonymous!
The web site was done by volunteers, with our son probably the lead person,
but this sort of work to him, is a bit foreign, he deals in databases,
patients and money! Any way, it has happened and is a bucket list
achievement that I can now cross off. The correct representation of images
gave a lot of difficulty, so I need to say that there may be a few of the
images that you wished were better, but as I look at them they should be
meaningful to you, if not perfect in my eyes.
I can not finish this announcement without acknowledging the immense debt
of gratitude that I have to Diana Smith, for he superb expertise,
observations, social history knowledge and indeed owner and curator of what
is probably the best Lace bobbin collection in the UK: THE DIANA SMITH
COLLECTION.
Thank you Diana, you are a very special person. I am not sure if the term
"Power behind the Throne" is totally appropriate, but that is about how I
feel. Smile.
OK, so the main document is: "A DICTIONARY OF ANTIQUE ENGLISH LACE BOBBINS",
this includes a separate section on what is probably my speciality "ENGLISH
EAST DEVON (HONITON) LACE BOBBINS". There is a second paper that Diana and
I worked on which is "A COLLECTORS GUIDE TO LACE BOBBINS"; all the bobbins
in this document are illustrated by bobbins from the "THE DIANA SMITH
COLLECTION".
I have included and extensive bibliography on Lace Bobbins and also my
current collection of articles on various aspects of lace bobbins. I am
slowing down on this type of writing as I seem to addressed most of the
differences and difficulties that a study of lace bobbins often raise. Not
that I have all the answers! BTW there are couple of purely fictional tales
in this list! I pretty sure I will be adding the odd article and as is my
want I usually let the list know when it is up on "Arizona".
Finally I have to acknowledge the work of the Springetts who really awakened
lace makers interests in the tools which they use. There is little doubt
that the Dictionary has been built, at least to some degree, on their
excellent work. Thank you
Here is the URL and it worked a few moments ago I hope it works for you and
will be a valuable reference tool for you.
brianlemin.com the pages load in small groups as the document is so long
as you would wait a very long time before it all loaded up, so be a bit
patient as you scroll down.
Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.
I am now of an age when my excitement is anticipating an operation in
January!!! What old people do for kicks!! Smile. (oh yes, younger people
too)
Fondest "strings of my heart" to you all, weave them into your work! smile
Brian
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