[lace] Liers Lace
Thanks to all of you who have answered my questions. I was thinking already about wrapping up my wmbroidery hoop with some cotton in order to get a better grip. Thanks Alice. I'll give it a try. Miriam In a very hot Israel - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] Liers Lace - hoops
To add on to Alice Howell's advice of embroidery hoops for Coggeshall and Liers: I have some large hoops with a thumb screw probably from before 1950. I think the good quality hoops were built to be adjustable for different thicknesses of fabrics. I have a small oval one from my family, the rest were from antique stores. See, another reason to go shopping. A little add on, I just bought a bottle of Poison Wild Berry Schnapps by White Rock Distilleries in Lewiston, maine. I bought the liquor because of the blackberry flavor but when I got home, I found that tied around the nect was a chain with a metal medallion with a spider embossed on it. See, another reason to go shopping again and have a party. (The taste isn't great but the violet color and medallion are worth a purchase.) A happy and relaxing summer Sunday to all of you. Diane Zierold Lubec, maine - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] Liers Lace - hoops
At 02:07 PM 8/13/2005, you wrote: I use an ordinary round embroidery frame, with a bound inner hoop, for Coggeshall and haven't had any trouble with the net slipping. Use a screwdriver to tighten the screw. It's obvious once it's been pointed out, and all but the cheapest frames have a screwdriver slot cut in the turney thing .. The embroidery hoop with the screw tightener is used by the Freemotion Machine Embroidery people. It is usually a bit narrower than the hand embroidery hoop because it needs to slide under the needle of a sewing machine. Look for them in the sewing stores that carry specializes equipment, or on line with a major supplier like Nancy's Notions in the USA. They are made in Germany, so if you are in Europe, they might be more commonly available. If you are in Germany, you might be able to visit the factory. There would be more sizes and shapes available at the factory than at a retail supplier. I got mine from a person who bought them from the factory, and brought them to a sewing seminar I attended. I have several sizes of rounds and ovals, and an almost square one. To make them grip even better, wrap the inner hoop with cotton. Plain cotton tape (not rayon) can be used, and also just torn strips of simple muslin. The most interesting one was wrapped with just cotton thread, not solidly but so there was a thread every couple millimeters. This gave traction without bulk even when the thread became a bit loose and moved around. Alice in Oregon -- in a heat wave, but it's supposed to cool down some next week. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] Liers Lace
I use an ordinary round embroidery frame, with a bound inner hoop, for Coggeshall and haven't had any trouble with the net slipping. Use a screwdriver to tighten the screw. It's obvious once it's been pointed out, and all but the cheapest frames have a screwdriver slot cut in the turney thing (mind's gone blank) but until someone passed me a screwdriver one day in an embroidery class, I was forever having to undo and reposition the fabric because it had slipped just that little bit. As I'm only doing little bits of tamboured lace (as little as possible!) I don't want to set up a slate frame, but I do see it could be better for a bigger project, once you have made sure you have the net straight and the right way round. In a round frame you need to take care not to distort the holes in the net, but once it's in place you can turn the frame to get the hexagons lined up properly. I hold the round frame in the slate frame holder on my Lowery stand, which means I can also get the light exactly where I want it. The pattern I tend to do largely freehand but as Margot says, I bring the 'cartoon' up behind to check I'm on target. I don't think I'd be able to cope with white behind the net (unless the net was coloured) and was taught by at least two different teachers (probably three) to have a dark cloth over my knees so I could see the net better. As with a lot of these things, I think it's a case of trying different equipment and methods and seeing what suits you. Jacquie - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace] Liers Lace
I learnt Coggeshall lace (same as Lier) from Joan Merrifield in England. I don't think you can use an embroidery hoop. The net is so thin that a hoop wouldn't hold it taut enough. We used a scroll type embroidery frame and laced the vertical edges of the net to the side bars of the frame. I didn't have a proper stand at home, so I just took a leaf out of my dining room table and centred the frame over the space. Now I have a large embroidery floor-stand type frame, and I'll be able to use it. We traced the outline of our pattern using one of the quilters' pens - the kind that disappears when wet. Sometimes, with a complicated pattern, it's hard to see the lines. So I attach the pattern to the underside to the top of the frame, and when I want to check a line, I just hold it up underneath the tulle. On Saturday, August 13, 2005, at 05:34 PM, Miriam wrote: Anyway, could one of you, who took the course, explain to me one thing. She writes in her book "moving patterns to the tullewhen this is ready you have to remove the paper and instead you should loosely fasten a white canvas so that you can see the pencil marks more easily." Question - if you have to move your needle down through the tulle and pick up your thread, where do you attach the canvas too without disturbing the embroidery process. Another question, did any of you work the lace on a regular embroidery hoop attached to a stand? Margot Walker in Halifax on the east coast of Canada Visit the Seaspray Guild of Lacemakers web site: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/quinbot/seaspray/SeasprayLaceGuild.html - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace] Liers Lace
I have followed all your e-mails about your courses at the IOLI with great interest.(and I was a bit envious) I have watched Greet demonstrate at the OIDFA congress in Nottingham, and then have xcorresponded with her for a while and somehow lost contact with her. I guess she was just too busy. Anyway, could one of you, who took the course, explain to me one thing. She writes in her book "moving patterns to the tullewhen this is ready you have to remove the paper and instead you should loosely fasten a white canvas so that you can see the pencil marks more easily." Question - if you have to move your needle down through the tulle and pick up your thread, where do you attach the canvas too without disturbing the embroidery process. Another question, did any of you work the lace on a regular embroidery hoop attached to a stand? If any of you who have taken the course with Greet could give me some tips I'd be very grateful. After all Denver is a bit far from Israel. Miriam in Arad Israel - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] Liers lace weekend
In a message dated 7/27/05 12:58:07 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > Those of you headed for Denver and for Greet's Liers lace workshop have > a great treat in store (those of you who are not headed for that > workshop, check out her exhibition piece made especially for the > occasion - Mountains of Lace. It's lovely). Greet is a wonderful > teacher: full of fun and enthusiasm and also full of knowledge and > helpful tips. > Dear Lacemakers, While "we" are on the receiving end of some nice comments today, I am thinking of the 4-page review (that's what it printed out to) Tamara wrote yesterday about the class sponsored by the Keystone Lace Guild last week in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This was a time-consuming article to write for Arachne. I hope that students who will be taking Greet Rome-Verbeylen's Lier class in Denver have written thank yous to Tamara for the comprehensive overview of what the class with Greet was like. Incidentally, Greet speaks perfect English and never misunderstands what her students are puzzled about. She paces herself well and gives her students equal individual time. All potential problems were anticipated. Rescue supplies for those who might have had problems with the list of requirements were tucked away in the hosting chapter's tote bags, wooden frames had been created by a local Pennsylvania craftsman, there was a coffee/tea/ice water setup each morning and sweets/snacks to keep energy levels up in the afternoons, the class was housed in a spacious cool board room with excellent lighting, black tablecloths provided visual contrast to the white tulle, lunches-to-order were picked up by Deb from local food establishments, and there was enough room to eat without being near our work areas where spills would have been a concern! Hotel managers stopped to see us each morning and afternoon to ask if we needed staff services and to see for themselves if we were happy. Deb Bender did the organizing, and deserves many kudos for creating such a wonderful lacing atmosphere. It was good to hear that Tamara's 250-mile drive home was uneventful. I departed to Maine the same Monday morning at 4 a.m. and completed my 550-mile drive in 10 hours, plus another hour for a 15-minute nap at a rest stop and a quick restaurant meal enroute. (Hey, I'm 10 years older than Tamara, and am getting to the age where a nap helps break up a tiring solo drive!) Robin Panza (the "other" active Arachne), had flown across America from California, and her trip had us both beat in terms of time, personal energy, and cost. I printed Tamara's review memo, and have put it in Greet's 2000 book: "Lierse kant oud en nieuw", or "Lace from Lier: Old and New" ISBN 90-73214-87-4, which I had purchased directly from Greet at the 2000 Lund Sweden OIDFA congress. Though Greet is Belgian, others should not hesitate to purchase her book, which has English, French and German translations within the text. This is a lace I'd like to learn more about, and I hope more books will eventually be published on the subject of Lier tamboured laces. (Yes! Yes! I know the Fukuyama book, but that is not what "we" are reviewing today.) Greet explains the history of Lier lace in her book: "During the Middle Ages Lier was the center of gold embroidery. This probably explains why after the invention of the mechanized tulle, people embroidered on it with a needle. A beautiful example of this are the old Dutch bonnets. They usually consisted of lace from Beveren combined with embroidery from Lier. After a while people started using the fine crochet hook to conjure up chain stitched patterns on the tulle." (Which evolved to use of a tambour hook, which differs slightly from the design of a crochet hook.) You have to remember that in the Middle Ages there was no Belgium - the area was (and I am simplifying history and geography here) The Netherlands, and the people were Dutch. The word tambour comes from the French word for "drum". It was the name given to round frames (about the size of basketballs) on which white fabric was tightly stretched (the result looked a drum) to be embellished on the surface with what looked like chain stitch embroidery - made with a hooked implement. Similar "embroidery" was done in other nations, including India. In time, many variations of the technique developed. Consult a needlework tools book for more information about the equipment. At the Gent OIDFA congress, 1998, I had stood transfixed in the registration area - watching a woman demonstrate making tamboured Lier lace - at great speed. Later, we had toured and seen a group of experienced Lier lacemakers, crowded together like sardines in a small room, all making this lace. One was a child about 6(?) guided by her grandmother (I have pictures), and another was a middle-aged(?) man. All the others were women. To Arachne participants takin
[lace] Liers lace weekend (very long)
Gentle Spiders,
Those of you headed for Denver and for Greet's Liers lace workshop have
a great treat in store (those of you who are not headed for that
workshop, check out her exhibition piece made especially for the
occasion - Mountains of Lace. It's lovely). Greet is a wonderful
teacher: full of fun and enthusiasm and also full of knowledge and
helpful tips.
I've always wanted to learn tambour lace - I love the gentleness and
the flowing lines of it - but my dislike of the needle stopped me from
trying the Limerick version of it, and there's not much printed
material on the Coggeshall version. I've tried teaching myself
Coggeshall from the one booklet someone on Arachne sent me, but didn't
get very far, especially with the tambour hook being definitely
different (and lethal, IMO ) from an ordinary crochet hook. A
workshop was indicated, but I couldn't find one anywhere near.
So when Liers workshop surfaced within 250 miles (Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania), it was a heaven sent opportunity; one I found hard to
refuse. I'd driven farther (to Ithaca) for a 2.5 day workshop, and this
one was full 3 days. To make the deal even sweeter, Robin, with whom I
had roomed in the past in Ithaca, decided to fly in for it (all the way
from Los Angeles) - we could room together again, and it would be like
the old times, before she moved from Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) to
California.
Truth to tell, I started the trip with "my soul on my shoulder" (and
ready to fly. Which is the Polish way of saying I was scared rigid
).
I've always heard that Belgians were hard taskmasters (Greet is from
Belgium), and the list of things we were to bring with us had "good
humour" on it, which only confirmed my fears; you don't ask for
something if it's not likely to be needed...
Then too, other than Robin, I didn't know anyone likely to be in the
class (organised by the Keystone Lace Guild); by going to the OIDFA
Congresss in Prague last summer, I had cut myself off from the one IOLI
Convention that was almost on my doorstep.
And then there was the drive itself. I *had* driven as far and even
farther before, true. But never to Harrisburg. And driving in unknown
cities scares me even more than driving on the highway.
But those gently flowing lines... :)
So I went, and, with the help of Yahoo driving directions, made it in
one piece to the motel where Robin had reserved a room for us. She and
a friend she'd picked up in Pittsburgh arrived a few minutes after me
(a hotel bill looks better when divided by 3, than when divided by 2
). So now I would have two familiar faces the next day instead of
just one.
We got to the hotel where the workshop was held bright and early the
next morning, and I found two more familiar faces :) Carol Lee, who had
been in my Rosalibre class in Ithaca the last October was there and
Jeri (Ames) had driven all the way from Maine... And the ones I have
not met before (including Deb Bender, who had organised - superbly -
the whole thing) were very friendly to the stranger in their midst. So
that fear was laid to rest. The last fear disappeared when I met
Greet... She requested "good humour" not because she was a slave
driver, but simply because she likes to be in company of people as good
humoured as she is herself :)
We had pre-ordered our frames and they were waiting for us, with two of
the fabric pieces already attached. Greet distributed the rest of the
materials - the book, the tulle, the threads (3 different sizes) and
the hooks, and told us how to attach the tulle to the fabric (the two
pieces already on the frame and the pieces we were asked to bring with
us). It quickly became apparent why the workshop had to be at least 3
days long... :) Almost half the day was spent running the straight
lines through the tulle to mark the direction of "grain", attaching the
tulle to the fabric and then setting up the whole thing, "just so"...
Worse than having to pre-prick the pattern and to wind the bobbins, if
you ask me... But Greet reassured me that this was the only time
I'd have to use the needle, and that the piece we attached would last
us through the entire class and then some.
There ended the easy part :)
Greet had made a demonstration "tool" - a piece of plexiglass, with big
holes drilled in it in a row - and each of us got a shot at practicing
the start of the chain, with a big crochet hook and a ball of thick
string. I've watched several people do it, then tried it myself and,
somewhere on the 5th hole or so, "got it". Or so I thought.
Went back to my frame, and tried to replicate what I'd learnt... No
way, Jose... :) On the plexi, there was just one row of holes; on the
tulle, there was a whole *sea* of them ("of course I'm afraid of the
hankie, said the little goat; it has four horns and I have only two" -
to use a childhood poem). And they all went in peculiar directions (60
degree angles). I was immediately reminded of all
