Calligraphy

 

I enjoyed the ‘Pen to printer’ calligraphy exhibition at the Crafts Study Centre, in particular the three panels of interwoven letters by Thomas Ingmire entitled ‘The space of writing’ and Gaynor Goffe’s depiction of Yeats’ poem ‘Had I the heavens embroidered cloths’ – one of my favourite poems. It made me consider the way I use text in my lace. Recently I’ve been using tambour lace to write in a fairly simple cursive script, which is easy to read and has a naïve style (see the detail above). I’ve also used simple straight stitched embroidery to write text on lace curtains, which I suppose is just an extension of the tambour work, which is basically a continuous chain stitch. If I’m trying to hide text in my work, or make it less obvious, I’ve also incorporated lettering into some of my Bedfordshire style lace designs, where it merges with the pattern, for example in my ‘Get off me’ mat. Capturing lettering in lace is quite a challenge, but I have plans for more mat designs including words – I’ll keep you posted!