I was immediately drawn to Amy Mills' comment about lace and music: "... to make a relatively simple analogy - the pattern could easily be considered a score, and the various stitches required to make the various parts of the lace compared to the different values of notes, the number of stitches a form of subdivision?"
Anyone who has read or has access to Alfred von Henneberg's book The Art and Craft of Old Lace will find on pp 30-31 his analysis of lace construction, likening it to musical composition, and a bit later on in the book he gives excellent examples in color describing what he means. He was an engineer who apparently found some laces in his aunts' attic and was fascinated with their construction. A reprint of the original 1931 volume was recently made and is available through one of Amazon's second-hand sellers. Not only does it contain the above analysis of lacemaking, but there are pages and pages of excellent photographs of the finest laces of the period. The book is written in several languages. This is a classic, and worthy of being in any good lace library. Tess Parrish (tess1...@aol.com <mailto:tess1...@aol.com>) in Maine USA, where today we had our first day of summer weather: heavenly! - 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://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
