Raised petals in Bedfordshire lace

 

Raised petals are added to lace to give a more three-dimensional appearance to the design. The group of raised petals that you see on the left here were worked separately to the main design and then sewn in place once the work was finished. It is probably possible to make the petals directly over the main piece of lace, and attach it to the lower edge with sewings as you work, but I think making it separately and then attaching it with needle and thread is much quicker and easier. Also, Bedfordshire lace does not traditionally use sewings, so the old lacemakers would not have been familiar with the technique.

The addition of raised petals seems to be left to the worker's discretion as the pricking for the lace does not indicate that the petals should be raised. Perhaps raised petals were only included in the lace if they were specifically requested by the lace buyer for a special piece.

I haven’t seen many examples of Bedfordshire lace with raised petals so I don’t think it was a commonly used technique. However, in this pattern by Thomas Lester the inner row of petals in the large flowers could easily be raised, and Lester’s work was just the type of high quality lace that would have been likely to contain such a detailed embellishment.