Putting Ones Big Ideas Into Practice

It’s quite a simple idea, really – if it takes too long to make traditional-scale lace economically, then making it bigger might at least spare ones blushes when it came to insurance prices. But bigger lace means bigger equipment and you can’t blame those who fear that newcomers to the genre may be put off by the cost of ‘re-tooling’. From personal experience, I can tell you that the worst bit is not the cost (suppliers will tell you: ‘a lacemaker and her money are soon parted’) but the fear of getting the calculations wrong when one jumps into the unknown.

(And for the record, I’m not one of those whose house has always been stuffed with pillows – for many years I used only one, and I usually finish one piece before I start another; among the items that went into the skip during our loft conversion were all my surplus pillows, including the one I made myself for my first and only term of lace classes.)

It all depends on what you mean by ‘re-tooling’, of course; some innovative lacemakers are happy to work standing up in front of a large piece of cavity insulation, using dowel for bobbins.  However, I learnt many years ago that the secret to conquering my RSI was perfect posture, so I’ve always gone for the more expensive approach of having proper equipment made larger so that I could continue to make lace under optimum conditions.

Block pillows from Newnhams (3ft) and Josie and Jeff Harrison (4ft 6ins) are my pride and joy, the latter allowing me to make panels up to 3ft wide. Yes, they did raise their eyebrows when making it, and it just fitted in the car when I picked it up.

Bobbins, however, have been more of a problem. Tim Parker, from whom I bought the standard continental bobbins I originally used (a), specially imported bigger ones from Holland (b, £1.10) for me, but they were not totally ideal – the heads are quite small in relation to the bulbs of wood on the bottom, so they don’t hold a huge amount of thick thread.  It took me some months to pluck up the courage to use them, during my experiments for my lace guild bursary, but once I had, couldn’t put them down.
 

My friend Margaret Tappenden being married to an enthusiastic woodturner, I then acquired a complementary set the same length (so I could mix them) but with double the thread-carrying capacity (c, £1.50). John’s bobbins, which he sadly no longer makes, are beautifully turned in interesting woods, and give me much pleasure to use, especially on my big pillow where I can spread them out since they are quite heavy. These take knitting and weaving threads and even chenilles.

It was another bursary, from Southern Arts, which centred me on a slightly finer area, Bockens linen 16/2 weaving linen (in autumn shades, displayed at the Bristol convention), and encouraged me to collect some smaller bobbins to match some old Swiss ones originally given me by my Grandmother. This gave me the impetus to invest in some of the beautiful work of Karin Langendorf in Southern Germany (d, 70p), the largest in her standard range. It took me a couple of years to work up to the 200 I needed, though I’d still like more.
 

Above: (a) standard continental bobbin; (b) large continental bobbin; (c) John Tappenden bobbin; (d) large Swiss-style bobbin from Langendorfs; (e) Czech bobbin; (f) large Czech bobbin; (g) half-an-hour with a whittling knife and a piece of dowelling.

It has been the introduction to Jitka von Linden at the Norwich convention that has opened up new vistas, however. As we’ve got to know Jitka better, we’ve had some fascinating conversations on equipment – I expect Jitka thinks me mad, anyway, working in a medium where 200 bobbins aren’t enough, while the Czechs produce their stunning work with so few. 

I remember one evening during a course she gave in Dorset where we debated the merits of flat pillows and bobbins of an enlarged Flanders type against her large bolster pillows and heavy Czech bobbins with tiny heads (e). Jitka was adamant that her way was best, so on a recent visit to do a course at her Czech home we gave it a try. Sadly, the lady normally selling the big bobbins at the Vamberk festival hadn’t brought any as local people hadn’t bought any recently, but there are now quite a few on order … 

Jitka has also been sending over huge bobbins in several styles (f, 50p in the style I preferred) which we’ve been using on her courses – I’ve not had time to try mine yet, but others have taken to them like ducks to water.  I understand these are quite easy to get via the internet (www.palickovani.cz).
 

I have tried whittling my own from B&Q dowelling (g) but arthritis in my hands put paid to that. It was fun to do, but it was painful. So I have been enchanted by Shelley Canning’s cheap and cheerful approach of using pea-sticks and papier mache to save the outlay on new equipment which she might not want to use again (see Lace magazine No 120).

So, now for a bigger Czech bolster and a stand to hold it … one day. The current project is the reorganisation of my studio to allow proper storage of the various types of equipment which all have their optimum use for different types of projects. Anyone got a very large shoe horn?