Thursday, February 14, 2013

Lacing it up

I've been enjoying the process of bobbin lace over the past couple of years but I haven't taken it as far as I would like.  But earlier this year my local weaving guild asked me to do a beginner bobbin lace class.  One thing I've discovered is that there's nothing like having to teach something to really move ahead in it.  There's something about having to explain things to someone that makes you really pay attention to what you're doing and why.

I've enjoyed putting together the curriculum, handout and prickings for the various skills we're going to practice.  Here's one of the more advanced projects I'm hoping the folks in the class will get to on Sunday:

This is an example of me stretching my abilities.  I've had my eye on this pattern for a while but just hadn't gotten down to it until I had this motivation to attempt it.  It had 3 aspects that I wanted to share - picots, plaits and leaves.  Now that I've had my practice round, I need to work the pricking one more time to work out a simpler start and finish to it.  Not that this one was all that difficult but when it's at the end of a very packed weekend, I want the students to be able to focus on the basic moves and not get distracted. 

In addition to this class in March, I've also signed up to do an Introduction to Bobbin Lace class at Lincoln Land Community College in October.  It's going to be part of a series that will also include an evening of Introduction to Teneriffe Lace.  People can do one evening or the other or they can get a discount when signing up for both.  Those classes will be at a very beginner, introduction level with some history of the crafts included.

Talking of these two lace, I found a really interesting YouTube video of Lacemaking in Croatia.  It features both of these laces.  Click here to have a look.