Covid has a lot to answer for and this letter is one of them. I am often
asked about where my bobbin interest came from etc. The simple answer is
I started to make bobbins as result of seeing a church member's pillow
at tea one week end. Now here the rest of it. I hope the arachne editor
will be Covid-like lenient on me for this mostly off topic post.
When i started all this bobbin stuff, some 25 years ago after i retired,
I had no idea this is where it would take me. I was just asking
questions about antique bobbins that few people could answer, so i
started to research the answers myself.
Arachne has always been my greatest source of interest and help, and we
(as a group ) did 3 or 4 little bits of research ourselves which I wrote
up and put on my Angel-fire web page (now more or less defunct). I then
started to find books on bobbins or lace, that were very helpful.
The of course then there was the Springetts revolution and that seemed
to change everything. More people began collecting, their work revealed
the importance of local history contained in or around bobbins. More
importantly it opened my eyes to what appeared to me was a whole field
of investigation of bobbins.
I had a few mentors and one special bobbin friend, without whose help
and access to her wonderful collection of bobbins, very little of what
is published under my name could have been achieved.
Even today she remains reluctant for her name to be mentioned, however I
have tried very hard to acknowledge her help as a knowledgeable
collector, restorer and curator. She is also a valued writer of local
history on bobbins and her work has appeared in many magazines local to
her area of living. However i am certain that her collection is the most
complete and best quality bobbin collection in private hands that is
current in the UK. I think it is fair to say that for different reasons,
we are both slowing down, but what a huge amount we have achieved. (and
we are both fabulously rich as the result of it! smile.)
East midland bobbins took a long time for me (us) to get our heads
around, but that has culminated in the web publication of a bobbin
dictionary (shorthand title) ( www.brianlemin.com) together with a
collectors guide for East Midland bobbins which was an excellent
showcase for her bobbins.
It would be wrong for me to say that we then went our separate ways, far
from it, she is still trying to help me get my head around S Bucks
bobbins, but it is true that my East Devon and Downton project was a bit
left field from her collection.
The East Devon part of that project has resulted in a Collectors Guide
that is in the hands of a volunteer arachne person editor. I feel
desperate for her! She told me of a typo in one of my webdocs
publications and said that she was an editor in her other life, "then"
she received from me a 100 page manuscript to edit! (Beware of what you
write to me about!)
The Downton part of that project is of necessity a long range project.
Those genres are hard to come by and a kind volunteer and museum curator
are working hard on my behalf to extend my Downton Bobbin database and
"teach me" about them. That is now a slow project because of Covid, but
I hope there will eventually be a "Collectors Guide to Downton
lace-making bobbins" They are fascinating, just you wait and see. [if
you know why a number of then are sequentially numbered please tell me!)
I do not intend to "do" 20th century bobbins (see Springett)
But there remains the Malmsbury bobbins, plain bobbins to almost
boredom. Then the "job" I started all that time ago will be complete.
Sure there are still pockets of research and sharing to do but I aim to
slow down. Do a bit more art patch-working, become a better guitar
player (I am a wanna-be jazz guitarist( which will never happen, I don't
do the practice!) I am making a clavichord and that will make me
relearn to art of reading music. ( Love classical music and Jazz and
very little in between!)So I have plenty to do. My heath is pretty good
but i have few struggles resulting from cancer, but I enjoy life with
those minor handicaps.
Help please?
I am always asking you for something, this is to ask you if any of you
can tell me anything about Malmsbury bobbins that will help me fill up a
couple of paragraphs or it will be a very short "Collectors Guide". My
apologies to the Malmsbury lace makers and their museum staff who were
very nice to me about 20 years ago but i will cover their bobbins in
three paras and a picture and that is not fair.
Thanks to you all take care, stay indoors, write long letters to arachne
Bye
Brian
Cooranbong. Australia
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