This roller pillow is one of my favourites for demonstrating
with as it shows off the lace and bobbins nicely and, because of the roller, doesn’t
require any tricky moving up when you have people watching you! If I’m working
on something smaller or thinner I use my travel pillow, basically because it’s
portable so I can take it with me and work on my lap. It’s a block pillow so
it’s also easy to move up the lace as you work, although because of it’s size
the amount you can do before having to move up is limited. For bigger pieces I
have a lovely block pillow, which has three large blocks running all the way
down the centre. I find that one is quite versatile but it does have to be
supported on a table. If I’m making something very large I use a huge piece of
polystyrene covered in plastic and a cloth – I find bits come off it if it
isn’t covered. I also use polystyrene if the lace I’m making is going to be
stiffened and in that case I cover the pillow in plastic as well as the pattern
if I’m using one. I have tried other pillows in the past, such as bolster and
domed types, but my lace seems to be better suited to something flat that can
be moved up easily.
Wednesday 26 September 2018
Thursday 20 September 2018
Corner design for lace or embroidery
I found this lovely little corner design for sale in Bruges
and bought it along with some other design pieces. I don’t know if it was
designed for lace or embroidery but the principles of design are the same. I
think the flower motif has been cleverly drawn in an up-sweeping line so that
it can be used in a run along the edge of the work and also fills the space in
the corner to move seamlessly on to the next run of flowers. In effect there is
no need to alter the design for the corner. However, what I find surprising is
that it hasn’t been very accurately drawn. The squares lines dividing the motif
cut off the leaves at different points, and the dots around the outer border
are not evenly spaced. Also the central block of the design seems to include a
section of acanthus leaves that don’t bear much relation to the roses round the
border and appear to have been cut from another design. Nor do the design lines
align with those round the border. I think this little design must have been
taken from the designer’s sketchbook and it was probably a preliminary drawing
to try out a few ideas before the production of a commercial design.
Wednesday 12 September 2018
Lace decorated devotional pictures
I was interested to see a fascinating exhibition of these lace-decorated
devotional images in the Kantcentrum in Bruges. They show images of saints or
the holy family and are decorated with lace borders, they often have a prayer
written on the back and many were associated with specific points in the
Christian calendar. The cards in the exhibition were mainly produced by publishers
in Paris after 1830 and were distributed at catechism classes and after church
services. Many were personalised and given as a record of first communion or as
memorial cards at funerals. Most of them have a punched frame of lace, rather
like a paper doily or the laser cut lace of today. However on a previous visit
to Bruges I saw some that had surrounds that looked like lace prickings and
many that included pricked designs, like lace grounds, within the main design. I
didn’t see any of these in the current exhibition, but the information board
said that Antwerp was the centre for the production of these cards from the
sixteenth to the eighteenth century, so perhaps they were earlier designs. I
need to do some more research!
Thursday 6 September 2018
Filet lace stitches
I bought an interesting little piece of filet lace in Bruges
recently which includes quite a variety of stitches. The central motif shows
darning or linen stitch overlaid with leaves, which are worked in a similar way
to bobbin lace ones by running a long thread the length of the leaf shape,
catching it in the linen stitch and then back to the centre again and then
weaving over and under, across the two threads, to form the leaf shape. There
is an explanation of how to do it in Therese de Dillmot’s little encyclopaedia
of needlework. There is also some simple outlining, to form a gimp around the
central petal shapes, although it doesn’t follow the outline of the linen
stitch very accurately! The central motif is ringed by loop stitch in a finer
thread which is worked in one direction by looping the thread over the square
meshes leaving a loop between stitches which is then worked through on the
return journey in the opposite direction. You can also see some star shapes in
the photo which are made by loping the thread round the square mesh in a lazy
daisy fashion. I was also intrigued to see that the ends of the threads are
knotted off quite crudely in places – I suspect the worker was being paid piece
rates and was hoping no one would be laundering the finished mat so it wouldn’t
unravel.
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