Lace Demonstrating

Good luck on your demonstration.  People always ask the same questions:

1) How long does it take?
2) How long have you been making lace?
3) Is it hard to learn?
4) What do you do with it?
5) How do you know what to do next?
6) What are the beads for? (tension (weight), to keep the bobbins from
rolling, decoration, & storage (I put something through them when I move my
pillow).

I usually have to point out the lace.  Many people thing the bobbins are the
finished product.  I explain that there are two basic movements (cross &
twist) I will say cross & twist aloud to demonstrate this point after
showing what it is.  I only use four bobbins at a time.  I will show how to
work from one side to the other picking up & throwing out bobbins.  I like
to point out the pricking.  Talk about what it is and they different ways it
can be made. (A pin for every dot!)

You will hear:  "That looks difficult." or the rude version "That looks
tedious".  People can be amazingly rude to you. I can't count the number of
people who have much superiority have said "You must have a lot of time."
This is of course not the case.  I am convinced that these people waste more
time in front of the TV letting their brains rot than anything else.

Many people will walk up to you and tell you that you are tatting.  I like
to bring tatting along to show the difference.

At the renaissance festival I bring an extra pillow with a simple pricking
on it.  It is set up to do half stitch ground.  So if some one is very
interested they can try it and have success within a few minutes.

I choose a pattern that I find very easy to work.  I don't like to have to
refer  back to a diagram or instructions.  It is hard on concentrate in a
noisy environment when people are trying to talk to you.  I am currently
working on a wedding garter.  It is pretty successful.  It is simple but
very pretty & people can understand "why" I am making it.  (As if the joy of
bobbin lace was not enough.

One of my teachers said that you shouldn't undo a mistake when people are
watching.  I will "retro" lace when other people are around because there is
a steady stream at the renaissance festival.

I have special bobbins so I like to show them off & talk about them by style
or by the superstitions that go along with them.
 

1) Special Bobbins: Cow & Calf, Barley Twist, Mother & Babe, Mother & Twins,
Mother & Tripplets, Lepord, Bees-knees, Commeratives, Lanterns, Tinsel
Spirals, Painted, Wire Bound, Names, Sayings, Inlaid...
2) Mother & Babe - It was considered bad luck for a unmarried woman (or even
a childless woman) to use a mother & babe bobbin.
3) The "Eye" Spangle was thought to ward off the evil eye.
4)The Eye spangle that is gray with red & blue spots is associated with
Kitty Fisher. (Insert Poem Here).
5) Buttons were put on the pillow or bobbin for good luck.
6) Leopard bobbins with raised spots were used to ward off arthritis.
7) Turquoise or even all blue spangles were used to protect the lacemaker
from falling.
8) Sweetheart beads were given on Valentines day.
9) An engaged girl would inscribe her name & her boyfriend's name on a
bobbin and put his waistcoat button on the spangle for good luck.
10) Birthdays, Anniversary, Deaths, Special Occasions would be celebrated by
having a bobbin with the event inscribed on it.
11) All black spangle are for mourning.
12) Bobbins can be made of wood, glass, bone, metal & plastic.
13) Men initially made bobbin lace but they abandoned it in favor of
embroidery with silk & gold/silver because it was more prestigious.

Interesting Facts:

1) Bobbin lace dates back to the first quarter of the 16th Century. (~1540)
2) It originated in Italy & Flanders at the same time.
3) Bobbin lace is believed to have descended from braiding or plaiting.
4) Young Girls would be apprenticed as early as five years old to learn to
make lace.
5) There were laws about who could wear lace and at what time of day.
6) Lacemakers would learn one pattern only for speed.  They would work under
the apprenticeship of a master lacemaker for many years.
7) Another person typically a man would make the prickings.  They would be
given to the master lacemaker to test before they were given to other
lacemakers.
8) A rural clergyman called lace the "devil's spit".
9) Some countries outlawed lace from other countries to protect their local
lace industry.
10) The lace collars of the 16th Century that give the "head on a platter
look" were supported by a ring of metal to get the lace to stand up.
11) By the End of the 19th Century machine lace was perfected and bobbin
lace was no longer an industry but an art form.
12) Lace is most commonly made from cotton, linen & silk.
13) Lace is not a lost art!

I would love to hear of any additions or corrections.

Leisa