Catherine Barley Needlelace
www.catherinebarley.com
Original message
>From : catherinebar...@btinternet.com
Date : 27/03/2018 - 17:36 (GMTDT)
To : ec...@cix.co.uk, lace@arachne.com
Subject : Re: [lace] Lace revival
I was also taught bobbin lace by Nenia Lovesey in the late 60's early 70's
after having seen her demonstrating in a church hall in Crowthorne, Berks where
I lived. I was fascinated and asked where I could learn, to which she replied
"at the Berkshire craft Centre in Wokingam in what was the old Brewery". I
enrolled and took to bobbin lace like a duck to water, just couldn't get enough
of it! Nenia always told us to be beware as once we had caught the Lace Fever,
there was no cure, and how right she was! I also learnt from the Swedish
Knippling book with the accompany brown cards printed with the Torchon patterns
and still have both book and patterns today.
Nenia was invited to be Craft Co-ordinator at South Hill Park Arts Centre in
Bracknell and asked me to take over the bobbin lace classes at the Wokingham
Craft Centre. I said I couldn't possibly as I felt I had insufficient
knowledge, but she insisted and said I would be okay, so I agreed. Once she
had got South Hill Park Arts Centre up and running she asked me to teach bobbin
lace there too, which once again I did. However, there were no qualifications
that one could study for in those days and Nenia had also been asked to teach a
City & Guilds Creative Textiles course at Windsor & Maidenhead College, which
covered everything that made a textile, including both bobbin and needlelace.
This was my chance to gain some sort of qualification, so jumped at the
opportunity!
When I signed up for the bobbin lace class in the late 60's my youngest child
Suzanne had just started school, so with both of them at school I was able to
have a couple of hours to myself to indulge in my new found hobby, but by the
time I enrolled on the C & G course at Windsor, they were both teenagers, so
some years had passed before I got to this stage!
I knew nothing whatsoever about needlelace and had probably looked at many
examples, assuming in my ignorance that they were bobbin lace - wrong! I
excelled at needlework at school in the late 40's/early 50's and would have
loved to have earned a living at it, but my teacher at school told my parents
that it was hard work and poorly paid, so I had to drop the needlelwork and
take the shorthand/typing class. Britain was still recovering from the war in
the early 50's and no way would I have been able to earn a decent living by
needlelwork! How I would have love to had been an apprentice at The Royal
school of Needlelwork, so you can imagine how honoured felt when several
decades later I was invited asked to teach needlelace the apprentices at the
RSN which was then based at Princes Gate, London. I taught them one whole day
a week for six weeks.
Nenia was an incredible woman, a member of the World Crafts Council and there
was nothing that she couldn't do. She taught us to spin, weave, card a fleece,
work Irish crochet, knit, work Sans Blas, bobbin lace, needllace,
Carrickmacross and so many other things, too many to mention! Today she would
have been awarded an OBE for services to lacemaking but sadly she was never
honoured with such a prestigious award, although more than well deserved. Most
of us who make needlelace today, would not know how, had it not been for Nenia,
as to the best of my knowledge she was the only person who knew how to make it!
None of the other guilds in 1980 were remotely interested in needlelace,
largely due to the fact that they knew nothing about it! As a result, Nenia
and a small group of her students at the publication party for the launch of
her first book 'Needlepoint Lace' published by B T Batsford in 1980, decided to
form our own Guild, which ran until October 2017. However, as!
not one single member came forward to join our committee at the AGM last
year, the Guild of Needleace had no option but to fold! What a sad state of
affairs and we really do owe it Nenia to continue the legacy she has left to
us. Is there no one out there who makes beautiful fine white needlelace and
who can pass on these techniques for the benefit of future generations? I have
done my level best over several decades, travelling many thousands of miles
both here in the UK and overseas to pass on my skills, but all I hear is "I
couldn't possibly see to do such fine work" but I see beautiful fine white
Honiton lace still being made, along with gorgeous Binche, Bucks etc so why is
it so difficult to find a tutor to teach 'Traditional Needlelce" I wonder?
Nenia wrote a book 'Reflections on Lace' for her grandchildren, published again
by B T Batsford in 1988 (now out of print of course), but f you can get hold of
a copy or borrow it from your Guild library, I recommend that you read it.
There are letters of congratulation from The
