Babs,
Christine Springetts books have a couple of wedding horseshoes. One book is
the "Lace for Children of All Ages" and the other one is her latest book
"Lace for Special Occasions". Both books have small horseshoes too which
can be put onto wedding cards or used to make little cushioned hangers with
the couples details embroidered in the centre etc., which could be given to
the bride in place of a horseshoe if a long enough loop of ribbon is added
to the top. Lace for Special Occasions also has a wedding garter pattern
in it.
SMP lace sells these books and gives a quick service as a general rule,
Russell Perrin will take credit card payments via the details over the phone
or by letter but not online. SMPs website is at http://www.smplace.co.uk/
Look at the catalogue and under the heading books, followed by Books on
Lace, there you will find a listing of authors of lace books, Christine
Springett is listed under S. You can see the small photos of the front
covers of her books here for an idea of the horseshoes etc.
Amazon.co.uk also sell the books but no photos of the covers are shown here,
they have a couple of Christine's books on their New and Used system at
reduced prices. But delivery is not so quick as that of SMP.
I have made several of the horseshoe pattern from the book Lace for children
of all ages and can send you a photo of one of these I have made if you want
to see how it comes out. It is made mostly in torchon ground with a little
bit of honeycomb stitch I can make one of these in about 5 hours once the
bobbins are on the pillow. Christine's instructions are very precise and
clear.
I used the Gold Rush thread in Silver throughout, apart form the blue gimp
around the edge. Christine's instructions say to use white thread with a
blue gimp and then to mount the horseshoe onto Silver coloured card cut into
a horseshoe shape, but I can't get that sort of card here. So I make my
silver thread horseshoe then use a liquid called Stiffy and paint that on
the back, a couple of coats usually does the trick and I then don't need the
card. I cover a cork tile with plastic film pinned out taut and lay the
horseshoe face down on that, putting in a couple of pins to hold it steady.
Then I paint on the stiffy and leave it to dry for at least 24 hours, giving
a second coat then if I feel it necessary, you only need a thin coat each
time so as not to clog the holes in the lace.
Because I use gold rush instead of the recommended thread I obviously don't
cut the lengths of thread to Christine's measurements but just fill the
bobbins with as much gold rush as I can. I think I use about 4mts or so per
bobbin. Any left over lengths can be used up on smaller projects as silver
gimps etc.,
I also make some of the little flowers from the same book. These flowers
are made in the form of a strip with a wavy edge, of varying depth of wave,
the strip is then gathered up using the passive threads which are left long
when cutting off the bobbins. These little flowers are used in the book for
alice band and card decoration, I add a little pearl seed bead to the centre
of each flower and usually use 3 flowers per horseshoe. I drew up a leaf
shape on a bit of pricking card and pricked holes around the edge to make up
3 green leaves from this, again using Stiffy to stiffen the flowers and
leaves enough to hold their shape and bend the leaves and the "petals" of
the flowers to shape them a little and give a bit of life to both. I then
stitch these to the front of the horseshoe instead of the silk flowers that
Christine used. Add a blue satin ribbon handle and voila!
The giving of horseshoes is not a custom here and when I have given one of
these silver horseshoes to a Spanish bride they have been delighted with it
and are fascinated by the custom.
The book Lace for Special Occasions also has a rosette to put on the front
of white satin wedding shoes, an edging for place cards, wedding hankies and
a head dress for the bride in two sizes. There are also piece of lace used
on photo frames for photos of the babies that come later. There is also a
circle of lace to use behind a posy of flowers. All sorts of ideas there
for you to ponder.
Regards
Jenny DeAngelis
Spain.
I'm looking for various prickings for wedding horse-shoes and garters so
that I can make a few to sell at our local charity craft fair. Could
anyone
point me in the right direction please.
Thanks, Babs (Chesterfield)
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