POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Notes

The bobbin lace process is best described as a form of weaving, in which the warp and weft threads are constantly changing places. There are only two basic movements, the cross and the twist, which always involve two pairs of threads. Bobbin lace is worked over a card pattern that is fastened to a pillow stuffed hard with material such as straw, sawdust, or horsehair. As each stitch, or row of stitches, is formed it is held in place with a pin pushed through the appropriate point on the pattern and into the pillow. The shape and size of both bobbins and pillows varies considerably from region to region. In the bobbin lace part of this border all the floral components outside the hexagonal medallion, and the medallion border itself are bobbin made in variations on cloth stitches with half stitch relief on outer sections of the spade-shaped leaves. There is considerable use of raised work (rope sewings and stem stitch) and some use of a gimp thread. The two lace engrelures are machine made. Needle-made laces are laces made entirely free of a base fabric. They developed at the end of the sixteenth century from techniques used in the embroidered laces,particularly cutwork and drawn work. In the needle lace sections of this border, the rose motif is worked in simple buttonholed cloth stitch with a loosely buttonholed cordonnet. There are also circular buttonholed dots for decoration. The ground is twice or three times twisted (right over left) according to the direction of working. The ground between the bobbin lace motifs is similar, with buttonholed spots. REF: Rosemary Shepherd, 'Glossary of general lace and lace making terms', Powerhouse Museum, 2003