the Middle Ages were pieces of parchment dipped in saffron dye to
make the white threads more visible (or so I read in the Spanish lace list).
As a Spanish lacer, I must say that not all Spanish prickings were red. I would say that the prickings from Catalonia (Barcelona and that area) were red, and this lace is perhaps the most known abroad. Whereas in Almagro, also with a lot of tradition in bobbinlacing, the prickings were and are yellow. They used to dip them in saffron, as Deborah says, because saffron was and is a very typical product of that area and in old times it was an easy way to dye the cardboard. In the NW of Spain, that is in Galicia, also with a lot of tradition in bobbin lacing, they still use grey cardboard, from the shoe boxes, and draw the pattern with ink. Very rudimentary, but they still work like that there. I have seen the same patterns in Portugal (which is just below Galicia, geographically speaking). And finally, all the patterns I have seen from numeric laces from Seville (Carolina's With Stitch laces) are green. At least Cándida's patterns, the "creator" of this lace, are dyed in green. First they took a cardboard and drew the pattern with ink on it. Then, with a brush thet dyed the whole thing in green. And finally they brushed a kind of liquid wax on it, so the pattern was like plastified, and the ink didn't dirty the lace. So, as you see, red is not the only color used in Spanish prickings, though perhaps the most widely spread and most known abroad. Many greetings from Antje, in Guadalajara, Spain http://es.geocities.com/antjeglezherrero - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
