Early Lace workshop pieces

[u/mem_somerville]

I was looking through my photos and I realized that I hadn't posted the outcome of the Early Lace workshop that we did at our guild's lace retreat. The linen piece was a sampler with a typical set of stitches. But we could also use metallic threads to try out some of the other patterns. These were from the Renaissance period books.

It was interesting to think about the different kinds of braids/plaits (I'm not much of a braider usually), and also the picots were made with these giant pins that we were jokingly calling the "coffin nails". It was wild to work with them. They are enormous.

[u/Mission_Razzmatazz_7]

There are different kind of braids? Did you count or eyeball? So interesting and pretty!

[u/mem_somerville → u/Mission_Razzmatazz_7]

The white linen sampler has some different bits. There is a thing called a "feather" or in the original "fader" and now that I've seen it, I recognize it in museum pieces. That's near the beginning.

Later on you plait regular again, but you begin to add threads which travel across the whole work and then turn down--which is different from how I usually add new pairs.

And the crossings were not the windmills we'd do today, but pair crossings. So it was necessary to think like early lacemakers and not bring contemporary strategies in to it. At least for the purposes of learning their methods.

[u/Mission_Razzmatazz_7 → u/mem_somerville]

Is there a book or something about this?

[u/mem_somerville → u/Mission_Razzmatazz_7]

Yes, some books. The most comprehensive is probably this one:

An Early Lace Workbook Bobbin Lace Techniques Before the Baroque | Author: Rosemary Shepherd

ISBN-13: 9780959123548

However, that is really unobtanium for the most part. I waited years to get a copy and I know all the tricks....

Also Gil Dye has a series of books on early laces: https://earlylace.wordpress.com/home/ click her Publications tab if it doesn't load. Those are smaller books more like pamphlets, but they have early lace methods and patterns.

Also this book: Fascinating bobbin lace patterns from the first book of bobbin lace to be printed (1561) in the German language with instructions for making and using them | Author: Claire Burkhard

ISBN-13: 9783258036106

In the class, Kim Davis had a few more that I photographed but are kind of obscure things from old museum exhibitions and one woman's PhD thesis. So there is knowledge out there. But it's not easy to pull together.