Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
I've always pre-pricked onto card, mainly because I was taught to do it that way and find that I understand the pattern much better when I start the lace if I've spent the time pricking and inking in the markings, but I've just realised I could never make lace without pre-pricking - I rely on feeling the pre-pricked holes under the pin, only look for the pinhole/dot if I can't find it with my fingers! Beth M in Cheshire, England where it's a beautiful spring day outside - sunny, with a breeze tossing the daffodils and blowing cotton-wool clouds across the sky. Sue Harvey wrote: I was taught to pre-prick onto card, the reason given was your lace is only as good as your pricking, rubbish pricking, rubbish lace. I have also found that if the light is not very good it helps greatly if it is already pricked. - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
Dear Clay and other interested Friends, And from a teaching standpoint, I think it is essential for relatively new lacemakers to get into the habit of pre-pricking, since this helps review the pricking for those illusive dots that sometimes print out lighter than others and might be missed. I can tell you now that if I'd been taught to pre-prick when I first learned lace making, then I most probably would not have gone on with it, finding that process oh so boring and holding me up. Still I'm happy that I did go on with it all the same David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
Dear Friends, I photocopy onto green paper, assuming I'm using white thread. No film needed, if one is only doing it once. Of course - now why didn't I think of that? No more hunting for rolls of cheap film at supermarkets for me. David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
[lace] Card versus photocopy paper
In message 20110402113006.7cc30338...@gex-cn03.ncable.net.au, David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au writes Dear Friends, I photocopy onto green paper, assuming I'm using white thread. No film needed, if one is only doing it once. Of course - now why didn't I think of that? No more hunting for rolls of cheap film at supermarkets for me. David in Ballarat What works in one climate won't necessarily work in another. The main reason for using the film is to stop any of the toner/ink getting onto the thread - and in England I have found that ink-jet ink isn't waterproof - that discovery, before we had laser printers at work, made me decide that printing the addresses on envelopes wasn't a good idea knowing how soggy our post sometimes gets! Even now, the laser printer I'm using doesn't always fuse the toner to the paper properly and it will lift if you brush a finger across it (I've more or less sorted that problem by changing the paper setting to heavy) - and photocopiers work much as a laser printer, so I wouldn't necessarily trust those not to discolour threads. Unless you are certain (through testing) that the print is waterproof and won't flake off, I would suggest you stick with the film. Personally I prefer card prickings, which I pre-prick and mark where necessary with a waterproof pen. It doesn't really take that long and gives you a chance to read the pattern in advance and sometimes work out how to go about it - choices as to stitches, etc. In the days before computer printouts, pre-pricking also gave us the chance to true-up the prickings - some of the printed patterns in books are awful! The other thing I've found in teaching and for myself, is that your accuracy in pricking a pattern can show up when you need to visit the optician quicker than anything else! No problem with the film closing up over time... no residue of glue on the pins... no calluses on the fingers from putting pins up... but, each to their own! The card is supposed to help support the pins - possibly another consideration where whether to use card or paper is concerned is how hard the pillow is, as to what support it gives the pins and whether extra support is necessary. I've also found that the window/shelf covering self-adhesive plastic film sold by the metre in d-i-y or decorating shops can work out cheaper than the book covering film - you can get a clear matt version whereas most of the book films are shiny. -- Jane Partridge - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
Dear Jane, thanks for a most interesting email. Just when I was considering going over to a laser printer too! I've also found that the window/shelf covering self-adhesive plastic film sold by the metre in d-i-y or decorating shops can work out cheaper than the book covering film - you can get a clear matt version whereas most of the book films are shiny. If the shininess bothers you it only takes a few seconds to remove it and make the film matt with a brand new dish scouring pad (those dark green ones). So I pay less than $1 for a metre of plastic film and usually pick them up on sale or at the Reject Shops for around 50 cents a roll. David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
My contribution to this discussion is that personally I prefer to work on card rather than paper, so if only paper is available I use two or three thicknesses. This is because I like the feel of the support that the pricking gives to the pins. I don't always prick in advance - Withof and Hinojosa are pricked as you work, and my own designed Milanese I work in the same way. For strip laces I do tend to prick in advance as it makes it *much* quicker to place the pins accurately as you can feel the holes without needing to see them. For this reason, and after the recent discussion with David about the need to pin Point Ground ground at all, I am surprised he doesn't pre-prick, but I guess with a single layer of paper/film there wouldn't be much of a hole to feel; when I am pricking in advance I tend not to use the film as it heals over the hole and reduces the benefit of the work done pricking. From the quality of David's lace he is obviously well able to hit bullseye with most, of not all the pins VBG For my students though, it depends on who they are. Some of them really struggle to do a good pricking even when they don't have all the threads hanging over the dots, and for them I do encourage pre-pricking in a good light and with a magnifyer - even if they don't need to use one for the lace itself. Most actually prefer to do it, and I would never discourage that. Jacquie in Lincolnshire - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
Where possible I still take the photocopy, rub it all over with bee's wax and then prick through onto heavy duty card (I like envelope files because they seem to be quite robust and are glazed card). Then I draw on the pricking details using a fine permenant marker (0.1mm); I used to use a Roting pen but they are far too high maintainence. I view making the pricking as a way to study the pattern before I start to make it. Often drawing on the markings helps to make the pattern easier to understand. Occasionally, for unusual or complicated patterns I will photocopy then stick the copy onto the cardstock and cover the whole with sticky backed plastic. I have used both blue plastic and clear - when I use the clear I photocopy the pattern onto blue paper. The patterns I've had to use a photocopy and plastic for have been recent where only a partial pricking is given and you are supposed to copy it 3 or 4 times and then stick it all together and re-copy. I spent a very unhappy Sunday with one such pricking and in the end still didn't have a version that I could prick through - I had to use the photocopy and plastic method. I didn't preprick the pricking and just put it on the pillow and went for it - not doing that again as every finger hurt from pushing through the pins. However, that pricking has been used twice and has stood up to the usage. I recently started a pattern by Biggins which takes c. 70 pairs of bobbins. It's 10 long and 7 wide so I took one look and stuck it to card and covered it. I then spent 4 evenings pricking it before making it. Good idea. L Kind Regards Liz Baker thelace...@btinternet.com My chronicle of my bobbins can be found at my website: http://thelacebee.weebly.com/ --- On Fri, 1/4/11, lynrbai...@desupernet.net lynrbai...@desupernet.net wrote: From: lynrbai...@desupernet.net lynrbai...@desupernet.net Subject: Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper To: David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au Cc: lace@arachne.com Date: Friday, 1 April, 2011, 21:36 I use 110 pound card stock. I've had the pack for years, but I don't think it's as thick as regular card stock, although I could be wrong. It's colored. I don't pre-prick, either. A lot of times for classes I put the film on the photocopy. I'm thinking the force needed to put the pin through my card stock is not that much different than putting the pin through the film. In any event, I've copied a Bucks edging to go all around my roller, which will do a foot around. No film. My goal is 2 yards, maybe I'll get there before the IOLI convention this summer, maybe not. But I'll have a good idea of how many times this cardstock will go. I do think the time of pre pricking is over. Times are very different, and prickings don't have to last a lifetime. Photocopiers are wonderful. I photocopy onto green paper, assuming I'm using white thread. No film needed, if one is only doing it once. Fortunately, certainly at home we are not required to do as our teachers insist. I have the glazed card specifically for prickings, and that certainly has to be pre-pricked. I used it once, because that was what the teacher said to do. But now I know how to do it, I can choose my own methods. Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where it's a really cold wet spring, with only one nice day so far. There was snow on the ground this morning, now melted. - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
When I get asked to teach I offer that students can either buy their equipment up front from the supplier of their choice (but advice given) so they can take their work home at the end of the session and carry on, or they can borrow from my teaching equipment which they leave with me at the end of the session. I've a massive library of prickings because when I started in my first lace group they recommended that I picked small pieces of lace and pricked them out so that I got to understand how patterns went together. And because they are small pieces from everywhere I often lend them to students as starter pieces so that they don't need to prick out the pattern for the first few pieces that they make. I then encourage them to do as I did and make up patterns to understand them. A few years back I was teaching a student how to make lace so for the first thing we made together, a spingett's snake (big thread, quick make, teaches whole stick and twist and sewings) I gave her a pre-pricked pricking and we sat and wound the few bobbins needed together and made up a pair of snakes. We used one of my teaching pillows and the bobbins were from my teaching set (nicely weighted but nothing to write home about) and she make the snake over 3 sessions leaving the equipment with me between sessions. So far so good. The student liked making lace so she decided that she wanted to buy her own equipment. I suggested a local lace fair and some suppliers that had good equipment but not too expensive and she went off with a small list of essentials that she needed to get going. She came back with a 26 straw pillow that neither of us could basically lift and that every pin she pushed in bent!!! And 6 bone bobbins that cost at the time £20 each. (£120 I could have bought nearly everything I would have needed for the first couple of years!!!). She had also bought big dangly glass beads 'because they were pretty'. I could see we were going to have problemsg So I suggested that for the next session we spent part of the time spangling the bobbins that she had bought and choosing her next piece of lace to make. After about 15 minutes she threw down the bobbins and said that she was never making lace again. I asked why and she said that all this spangling and pricking and stuff meant that she wasn't making lace. I tried to calm her down by saying that many bobbin makers offered bobbins already spangled and that she could photocopy patterns and then stick them to card and cover with plastic but she still wasn't happy. When I calmed her down she finally came out with it. She liked the snake but didn't like the idea that she would have to learn to make lace. She had bought a pattern from a supplier for a lace fan using 260 pairs of bobbins (bucks point) and wanted to make that next. I felt like saying 'what with the 3 pairs that you own that aren't even spangled!!!) but I bit my tongue. Why? Because when I started to make lace I had chosen a small pattern that I wanted to make and had focused my learning on getting to a point where I could make it. When I showed my teacher the pattern and asked her what I needed to learn in order to get to the point of making this piece she told me that it was too advanced and I'd not be able to do it for years. I'd been making lace for 4 months at this time. I left the lessons, joined a lace group and 2 months later made the piece that I had chosen back at the start. So, I didn't want to say anything like that to this student. What I did say was she had to choose patterns to get herself to the biggy. Her response was that unless she made something that big then people at our living history events would be more impressed with what I was making. I suggested that she got another lace teacher. Sometimes even the best help in the world isn't enough. Mind you, she is the only student I have not succeeded with. L Kind Regards Liz Baker thelace...@btinternet.com My chronicle of my bobbins can be found at my website: http://thelacebee.weebly.com/ --- On Sat, 2/4/11, David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au wrote: From: David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au Subject: Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper To: lace@arachne.com Date: Saturday, 2 April, 2011, 12:21 Dear Clay and other interested Friends, And from a teaching standpoint, I think it is essential for relatively new lacemakers to get into the habit of pre-pricking, since this helps review the pricking for those illusive dots that sometimes print out lighter than others and might be missed. I can tell you now that if I'd been taught to pre-prick when I first learned lace making, then I most probably would not have gone on with it, finding that process oh so boring and holding me up. Still I'm happy that I did go on with it all the same David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
I've photocopied and laser printed patterns going back over 20 years (some photocopied from my books to make prickings or some which were bought as photocopies from the designer) which I've always stored in archive plastic pockets. However, many of the older ones and some of the more recent ones have attached themselves to the plastic pocket, even though I bought high quality archive ones. When you then take the pricking out, the printing is sticky and causes problems when you try to prick through it. I take a new photocopy of the pricking but if you keep photocopying it can distort the pricking and depending on the quality of the original I've had issues where straight lines aren't so straight. I've also found that ink jet printers can be a bit splogy for want of a better word and that the pricking holes can come out a bit larger than you might want. however, compared to the other option - tracing the pattern and then trying to transfer it I'll go for a photocopier! Kind Regards Liz Baker thelace...@btinternet.com My chronicle of my bobbins can be found at my website: http://thelacebee.weebly.com/ --- On Sat, 2/4/11, Jane Partridge jpartri...@pebble.demon.co.uk wrote: From: Jane Partridge jpartri...@pebble.demon.co.uk Subject: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper To: David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au Cc: lynrbai...@supernet.com, lace@arachne.com Date: Saturday, 2 April, 2011, 13:09 In message 20110402113006.7cc30338...@gex-cn03.ncable.net.au, David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au writes Dear Friends, What works in one climate won't necessarily work in another. The main reason for using the film is to stop any of the toner/ink getting onto the thread - and in England I have found that ink-jet ink isn't waterproof - that discovery, before we had laser printers at work, made me decide that printing the addresses on envelopes wasn't a good idea knowing how soggy our post sometimes gets! Even now, the laser printer I'm using doesn't always fuse the toner to the paper properly and it will lift if you brush a finger across it-- Jane Partridge - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
I've been finding this discussion fascinating. I'm doing old Binche and Old Flanders patterns, so I wouldn't dare try them without pre-pricking--pins are too close together, and my old eyes need magnification to do the pricking. If I pre-prick then I can make the lace without magnification, which is much easier. With regard to Liz' story below--it reminded me quite strongly of a graduate student I had when I was a professor: she was adamant that she wanted to be a paleontologist but it quickly become apparent that she didn't like _doing_ paleontology, she just liked the _idea_ of being a paleontologist! Making simple patterns in lace is fun as well as are the big challenges. Growing into the more complex patterns is part of the allure of lace-making, for me at least. Just my two-cents worth on card vs. paper: I've found that photocopying the pattern onto blue paper and sticking it to medium-weight card with matte clear shelf film works best for me. The best and cheapest card I've found for this layered method is manilla folder--I cut the good areas out of old ones that get thrown out at work so they're free! Nancy Connecticut, USA From: The Lace Bee thelace...@btinternet.com To: lace@arachne.com; David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au Sent: Sat, April 2, 2011 4:44:01 PM Subject: Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper When I get asked to teach I offer that students can either buy their equipment up front from the supplier of their choice (but advice given) so they can take their work home at the end of the session and carry on, or they can borrow from my teaching equipment which they leave with me at the end of the session. I've a massive library of prickings because when I started in my first lace group they recommended that I picked small pieces of lace and pricked them out so that I got to understand how patterns went together. And because they are small pieces from everywhere I often lend them to students as starter pieces so that they don't need to prick out the pattern for the first few pieces that they make. I then encourage them to do as I did and make up patterns to understand them. A few years back I was teaching a student how to make lace so for the first thing we made together, a spingett's snake (big thread, quick make, teaches whole stick and twist and sewings) I gave her a pre-pricked pricking and we sat and wound the few bobbins needed together and made up a pair of snakes. We used one of my teaching pillows and the bobbins were from my teaching set (nicely weighted but nothing to write home about) and she make the snake over 3 sessions leaving the equipment with me between sessions. So far so good. The student liked making lace so she decided that she wanted to buy her own equipment. I suggested a local lace fair and some suppliers that had good equipment but not too expensive and she went off with a small list of essentials that she needed to get going. She came back with a 26 straw pillow that neither of us could basically lift and that every pin she pushed in bent!!! And 6 bone bobbins that cost at the time £20 each. (£120 I could have bought nearly everything I would have needed for the first couple of years!!!). She had also bought big dangly glass beads 'because they were pretty'. I could see we were going to have problemsg So I suggested that for the next session we spent part of the time spangling the bobbins that she had bought and choosing her next piece of lace to make. After about 15 minutes she threw down the bobbins and said that she was never making lace again. I asked why and she said that all this spangling and pricking and stuff meant that she wasn't making lace. I tried to calm her down by saying that many bobbin makers offered bobbins already spangled and that she could photocopy patterns and then stick them to card and cover with plastic but she still wasn't happy. When I calmed her down she finally came out with it. She liked the snake but didn't like the idea that she would have to learn to make lace. She had bought a pattern from a supplier for a lace fan using 260 pairs of bobbins (bucks point) and wanted to make that next. I felt like saying 'what with the 3 pairs that you own that aren't even spangled!!!) but I bit my tongue. Why? Because when I started to make lace I had chosen a small pattern that I wanted to make and had focused my learning on getting to a point where I could make it. When I showed my teacher the pattern and asked her what I needed to learn in order to get to the point of making this piece she told me that it was too advanced and I'd not be able to do it for years. I'd been making lace for 4 months at this time. I left the lessons, joined a lace group and 2 months later made the piece that I had chosen back at the start. So, I didn't want to say anything like that to this student. What I did say was she had to choose patterns to get herself
[lace] Card versus photocopy paper
Just be careful, with using an Uncovered photocopy, that the ink does not rub off onto the lace. I did that once - and Never again!! I Always cover with contact, now, as the one time I did not, - I got very grubby lace on the underside, where the ink came off onto the lace. I was taught to pre prick on card when I started, but found it oh1 so boring! Once I discovered photocopying, and a place near by which was not too expensive, then I took that option! Now, of course I get to go past Officeworks regularly, and can call in whenever necessary! I just cover the white photocopy with coloured contact and pin it to my pillow, and get on to making lace! (the good part!) Regards from Liz in Melbourne, Oz. lizl...@bigpond.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
RE: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
I have been reading this thread with interest and waiting for someone to voice up about the method I have been using. It is not a new invention by any means but no one has said it so here is my two cents worth. I use coloured photocopy paper to print out on an inkjet printer then I laminate the pattern before pricking it. The prickings I have done this way are strong and hold up well to usage. The one time I bought gloss laminate I did the scouring pad trick and made a note to make sure I get a matt finish next time. I recycle the used prickings to other lace makers who have the same books - why should we both spent the time pricking if we can use the same pricking? Can you tell that I do not enjoy the pricking stage of lace making? My eyesight is bad and getting worse so seeing well enough to get the pricker over the dot is hard enough the first time. There is no way I would want to do several copies of the same pricking if I don't have to. Coming to lace making recently I skipped the 'prick through an old pricking' and 'draft your own patterns with graph paper' and skipped straight to photocopies and Lace RXP. I love the freedom to copy and paste with ease, no pencil and eraser for me. However, it is important to know what low tech ways there are to do the same job. For those of you who do use the photocopier - I have put together a Excel formula to calculate the percent to change a pattern to suit available thread when the stipulated thread is not available. You can download it from my website. The trick is to know the Wrap Per Centermetre of the stipulated thread and the wpc of the available thread. Key in both numbers to the yellow boxes and press enter - the percent size to set the photocopier at is shown in the blue box. Jenny Brandis Kununurra, Western Australia je...@brandis.com.au www.brandis.com.au - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
[lace] Card versus photocopy paper
Dear Friends, Regardless of how many passes you're getting now, may I suggest you photocopy onto card stock? This suggestion has been put to me a number of times and so I'd better confront it. There are a number of reasons why Iwill never copy on to card stock and these include: - I could not stand to have to pre-prick - I get enough calluses and holes in my finger tips pushing thousands of pins through paper - let alone card. - when I decide to make a piece of lace, I want to do it right NOW, and my paper prickings covered in plastic can be ready to work in only a couple of minutes. - of all the hundreds of pieces of lace I've made, both large and small, I have never had the need - now that I've learned just how many times I can use a paper pricking before it disintegrates, I am still quite content. (I rarely make a piece twice anyway) That'll do for me David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
Hi David and all I'm in the same club :))) Most times used of a paper pricking, *plain* paper even, was 12, of a Christmas ornament I'd only intended to make once. I got on a tangent of trying different colours and threads, no desire to stop and make another pricking :p Except for that one, I use magic or invisible tape over the paper for a bit of substance, and to protect the thread from the printing ink. I like the ease of pricking as I go, have done so since I started making lace. I have tried pre-pricking patterns for a couple of workshops to see what it would be like. It is good that we can choose a method to suit ourselves ;) My printer/copier is a favourite lace tool :D On 4/1/11, David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au wrote: Dear Friends, ..., may I suggest you photocopy onto card stock? There are a number of reasons why I will never copy on to card stock -- Bev in Shirley BC, near Sooke on beautiful Vancouver Island, west coast of Canada - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
I generally print on coloured card stock, and don't cover it in plastic. Nowadays I tend to pre-prick anything fine. I wear magnifying glasses to pre-prick, as my eyesight isn't good enough otherwise. Then I can make lace without wearing glasses, as I can see the dots well enough to know where I am aiming and the fact that the hole is already accurately place ensures the pin goes quickly where I need it to go. Sue sueba...@comcast.net - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
I agree with Sue, except that I still cover my card stock with blue film... I think that when we're making something with pinholes that are fairly far apart (1/8th inch, or about 3 mm) and we only intend to do it once, then the need for pre-pricking is not as great. But any time the pinholes are very close together, I need to pre-prick, just so I can find the holes later without a magnifying glass!!! And from a teaching standpoint, I think it is essential for relatively new lacemakers to get into the habit of pre-pricking, since this helps review the pricking for those illusive dots that sometimes print out lighter than others and might be missed. Holding a pricking up to the light tends to show out those missed holes very quickly, and saves a lot of grief later on then a pinhole isn't worked because it wasn't pricked in the first place. Experienced lacemakers can take all the short-cuts they want as long as they are happy with the results. New lacemakers should take every step seriously until they have mastered them. Otherwise, they may never know why their lace is not as pretty as it should be. Clay On 4/1/2011 11:48 AM, Sue Babbs wrote: I generally print on coloured card stock, and don't cover it in plastic. Nowadays I tend to pre-prick anything fine. I wear magnifying glasses to pre-prick, as my eyesight isn't good enough otherwise. Then I can make lace without wearing glasses, as I can see the dots well enough to know where I am aiming and the fact that the hole is already accurately place ensures the pin goes quickly where I need it to go. Sue sueba...@comcast.net - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003 - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
When I took my first lessons in bobbin lace way back in 1977, I was taught to trace the pattern from the book or photocopy and then prick through the tracing onto strong pricking card, then transfer the markings with pencil first and then with a fineliner pen, rubbing out the pencil markings. I prepared all my prickings this way for quite a few years, and passed it on to my pupils too. Then I discovered the see-through matt contact paper and making photocopies became easier when copyshops opened up. I still used card under the pricking whether I covered it with contact or not. Then, in 2007 I went to Gozo, Malta to attend the Lace Summer School. We were taught by Consiglia Azzopardi and she demonstrated how the Maltese prepare their prickings. What a light-bulb moment! They use the see-through blue contact the same as everyone else but sandwich the photocopied pricking between the contact on the front and the backing paper at the back. To add extra strength to the pricking a piece of calico or old sheeting is sandwiched in there too, between the photocopy and the backing paper. It makes a nice strong pricking but is soft enough to make the pins go through easily. I never did master Consiglia's trick of folding the top of the sandwich and sticking that only, and then flipping the whole thing up in the air and it all sticks together in a flash, and I never want to use a hard Maltese pillow again, but I nearly always use the blue contact and it's backing paper to prepare my prickings now. I still preprick so that I can feel where the pins must go, making the lace as accurate as I can while saving wear and tear on my eyesight and my back. I also hate using white thread on a white pricking as I cannot see what I have done or whether there is a mistake there. Janis Savage in Honeydew, South Africa Where we are having the last few days of lovely summer weather before autumn sets in. - This suggestion has been put to me a number of times and so I'd better confront it. There are a number of reasons why Iwill never copy on to card stock and these include: - I could not stand to have to pre-prick - I get enough calluses and holes in my finger tips pushing thousands of pins through paper - let alone card. - when I decide to make a piece of lace, I want to do it right NOW, and my paper prickings covered in plastic can be ready to work in only a couple of minutes. - of all the hundreds of pieces of lace I've made, both large and small, I have never had the need David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
I use 110 pound card stock. I've had the pack for years, but I don't think it's as thick as regular card stock, although I could be wrong. It's colored. I don't pre-prick, either. A lot of times for classes I put the film on the photocopy. I'm thinking the force needed to put the pin through my card stock is not that much different than putting the pin through the film. In any event, I've copied a Bucks edging to go all around my roller, which will do a foot around. No film. My goal is 2 yards, maybe I'll get there before the IOLI convention this summer, maybe not. But I'll have a good idea of how many times this cardstock will go. I do think the time of pre pricking is over. Times are very different, and prickings don't have to last a lifetime. Photocopiers are wonderful. I photocopy onto green paper, assuming I'm using white thread. No film needed, if one is only doing it once. Fortunately, certainly at home we are not required to do as our teachers insist. I have the glazed card specifically for prickings, and that certainly has to be pre-pricked. I used it once, because that was what the teacher said to do. But now I know how to do it, I can choose my own methods. Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where it's a really cold wet spring, with only one nice day so far. There was snow on the ground this morning, now melted. -Original Message- From: David C COLLYER dccoll...@ncable.net.au Sent: Apr 1, 2011 7:47 AM To: lace@arachne.com Subject: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper Dear Friends, Regardless of how many passes you're getting now, may I suggest you photocopy onto card stock? This suggestion has been put to me a number of times and so I'd better confront it. There are a number of reasons why Iwill never copy on to card stock and these include: - I could not stand to have to pre-prick - I get enough calluses and holes in my finger tips pushing thousands of pins through paper - let alone card. - when I decide to make a piece of lace, I want to do it right NOW, and my paper prickings covered in plastic can be ready to work in only a couple of minutes. - of all the hundreds of pieces of lace I've made, both large and small, I have never had the need - now that I've learned just how many times I can use a paper pricking before it disintegrates, I am still quite content. (I rarely make a piece twice anyway) That'll do for me David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003 - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
Re: [lace] Card versus photocopy paper
Lynn wrote: I've copied a Bucks edging to go all around my roller, which will do a foot around. I hope that you have made the pricking a bit larger than the roller. If it fits exactly then the 6 times you are going to go through the pattern means that you will be going into exactly the same pin hole each time. If you have the pricking a little larger than the roller so that there is a loop at the bottom, as you unpin at the back and reuse the pins, then the pinhole will be in a different place on each revolution of the roller. Malvary in Ottawa where it is supposed to be 11c today. Sleety rain overnight, but nothing left now except melting piles of snow on everyone's lawn. - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
