Harry Cross lace designs

I’m spending an interesting day studying some lace designs by Harry Cross in the Lace Archive at Nottingham Trent University. Harry Cross is the designer of the Battle of Britain lace panel that I’ve been researching for the last couple of years so it’s very interesting to see some of his other designs. These are all more floral than the Battle of Britain panel which is much more figurative and are more typical of his work in general. I was pleased to see wheat ears on one of them which also feature on the famous panel. It’s also interesting to see the way he shades his designs and his use of different colours to achieve that. In some he indicates the type of stitches to be used but in others just shades an area and presumably leaves it up to the draughtsman to decide how to achieve that effect in stitches. Interestingly some of the designs are quite similar to bobbin lace in appearance, which I suppose is not unusual as lace designers studied old laces for inspiration. I’m certainly having an inspiring day studying these lovely designs!