I’ve been studying the flowers and leaves Harry Cross used
in his design for the Battle of Britain commemorative lace panel, to get some
inspiration for my contemporary response to it. Apart from being amazed by the
elegance with which he depicts them I’ve been making a list and found roses,
thistles, shamrocks and daffodils representing the four countries of the UK. He
also includes plants representing the air forces mentioned on the panel, so we
have maple leaves for Canada, protea for South Africa, wattle for Australia,
and fern leaves for New Zealand. The panel also includes acorns and what is
generally described as wheat or corn along the outer edge, although it does
look more like barley with its long ‘whiskers’ fanning out. The image shows
some thistles, corn and shamrocks all beautifully drawn and shaded. I need to
try drawing some myself now and deciding how to incorporate them into my
design.
Wednesday 23 August 2017
Wednesday 16 August 2017
Second lace study day
Gail Baxter and I have just run another lace study day for
the Crafts Study Centre at Farnham. We had a lovely group of people most of
whom were crafts people but not lacemakers. We looked at lace from the Textile
collection at the University for the Creative Arts, which includes samples of
most types of lace, of varying qualities. We began the day by looking at the
different types of bobbin laces, then studied some needlelace pieces, including
some amazingly fine hollie point, and some very nice Point de Gaze. We then
moved on to some mixed laces, like the one in the picture, which includes
bobbin lace motifs joined with needlelace ground. After that we studied some of
the Irish laces – Limerick, Carrickmacross and crochet as well as some filet
lace. We ended the day by studying some very fine examples of knitted Shetland
lace and looking at some examples of different types of machine made lace. By
the end of the day we had managed to cover most types of lace and had given the
participants a good overview of the many different ways of making lace.
Friday 11 August 2017
Lace wedding veils
I’ve just bought a small book about wedding fashions and was
interested to see what it said about veils. It begins by discussing the weddings
of Queen Victoria’s family and says that the veil Princess Alice wore in 1862
was designed by her father Prince Albert, although sadly he died before the
wedding. The photograph in the book is not very clear but I did track the veil
down in the Royal Collection and it appears more like a shawl in shape, with
little gathering. She wore it thrown back from the face with orange blossom in
her hair. When Princess Alexandra married Prince Edward a year later she and
her bridesmaids all wore veils falling over the backs of their heads from
wreaths of flowers. This fashion often made it difficult to distinguish the
bride (see the image above), however by the end of the century it was generally
only the bride who wore a veil and the bridesmaids wore hats. In 1871, Princess
Louise wears a similar style of veil to her sister also hanging from the back
of her head with flowers at the front. All the royal brides wore white although
many ordinary women just wore their best dress whatever the colour with a
bonnet or veil. I’m looking forward to finding out more.
Thursday 3 August 2017
Battle of Britain lace panel at Bentley Priory
I’ve just visited Bentley Priory to see their Battle of
Britain commemorative lace panel and discuss plans for exhibiting my
contemporary response there. It’s so nice to see the panel so beautifully
displayed and on permanent exhibition in the hall at the Museum – the image
shows a detail from it. Bentley Priory was the headquarters of RAF Fighter
Command during the Battle of Britain and it was from here all the operations
were coordinated, in fact the museum includes a recreation of the Filter room where
all the radar information was processed, which gives a good idea of how skilled
the work was. It’s a very friendly museum with an important story to tell and
I’m looking forward to working with them on my Battle of Britain project.
Tuesday 1 August 2017
Lace doilies
The round lace mats that we call doilies, are reputed to
have been named after a London draper called Mr Doily, Doyley or D’Oyley who
had a linen drapers shop in the Strand in London. There is a reference to him
in the Spectator magazine of 1712 selling ‘stuff as might at once be cheap and
genteel’. Another writer mentions that the draper’s shop existed until 1850.
Originally, doily may have been a woollen material, the name being derived from
dwaele, the Dutch word for towel.
However in the eighteenth century, the usage changed to denote a small piece of
fabric known as a ‘doily-napkin’, placed between the dessert plate and the
finger bowl at the dining table. In 1854, Miss Leslie, an American writer,
described doilies as ‘small napkins intended for wiping the fingers after fruit’.
In the twentieth century doilies lost their association with towels and became
decorative or used to protect furniture. Doily now seems to be collective term
for all types of lace mat regardless of size or the technique used to fashion
them and the general public are probably more familiar with paper doilies than
textile ones.
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