Jane Atkinson: Contemporary Lace
design

Rhythm shtick

The rhythms of contemporary music and the cycles of human and natural life gave me a language where lace could speak on new terms in a delicate interaction with its audience during Rhythms and Cycles, at Highcliffe Castle last autumn (see also Exhibitions).

Counterpoint proposed patterns that existed only when viewed, just as music exists only when played. This completed a round, craftsmen finding connections in conversation over space, tension and harmony, developing concepts to which each had responded with further exploration.

Bone Lace (as bobbin lace was once known, for its old bone bobbins) explored osteoporosis, where bone thins to a frail filigree which can decimate ones life. During the work for this exhibition the aunt for whom I care lost her independence after two falls; constant pain accompanies daily life, even when sitting still. 

Under the Red Bough took the seasonal cycle on a landmark in the Avon Valley and celebrated layers of foliage with lace that shimmers as the viewer shifts.

Drawn to fragile subjects, I became keenly aware that life is all about change; my aunt survived her traumas, but the building covered annually in blazing creepers has been torn down and rebuilt, now sporting bare walls.

Bone Lace II, Swept Away

photo: David Bird

This took the basis of its pattern from the structure explored in Bone Lace I, Vertebra, which was then turned into a repeating Torchon pattern which could be spread to produce a full-sized hammock. The yarn used was largely Texere rug warp in several thicknesses, mixed with threads from the Czech Republic and Sweden and made on a 4ft 6ins block pillow using very large continental bobbins.

The metaphor of the supportive but non-supportive structure suggested the fragile nature of the osteoporosis sufferer’s skeleton, while the title refers to the consequent loss of her old life and independence.

 

Scarves

Sycamore silk scarf in 8/2 spun silk, 30 cm by 150 cm

Textile Jewellery

Necklace designed on a shaped Torchon grid, in shades of 40/2 linen

Hangings

Stoneface hanging, a sketch in lace of cliffs at Seacombe, Dorset, in industrial linen,
45 cm by 125 cm.

Panels

Paintbox panel in mixed embroidery and weaving threads, 26 cm by 26 cm

Furnishings

Curl Swirl circular mat in 40/2 coloured linen,
25 cm diameter

Trimmings

Shaped Torchon ‘galloon’ trimming in Special Dentelles and metallic thread

Pattern Design for Torchon Lace by Jane Atkinson, originally published in hardback by Batsford, is now available as a second revised edition on interactive CDROM from

£12 by mail order: send email to sales@intatex.co.uk for details