Featured Lace lesson #8 - Very fine handmade needle laces

Good Morning,
I thought I'd do a word about "very fine" Needle Laces. Some of these very fine needle laces include: Point d'France, Alencon, Punto in Aria, and others.

Some forms were quite large undertakings; as the small segments could be joined into much larger pieces. All that was required was that the lace making community was large enough to produce the required number of segments.

This piece is French. Probably Point d' France. The pin, for reference, is an ordinary sewing pin. This lace is made in small segments and repeated....the left side showing the join and the right side shows the end of the small segment and how it was worked in a stair step fashion to join with the next segment. This segment (not the entire piece) measures 3" to 3 1/4" long x 3 1/8" deep.

When examining handmade laces that are made in pieces or small segments - holding it up and looking at the piece against a light; should reveal a slightly darker line; indicating the join.

These very fine laces were built stitch upon stitch with a needle and thread. The patterns were usually very dainty, floral designs with very fanciful stitches. Most had a heavy outline cord/cordonnet/gimp thread which appear very much "on top" of the work; like piped icing!

I should like to point out several things. Please note the tiny dot in the center of each diamond has 4 connecting legs. Each of those legs have two twisted threads... unreal... even under strong magnification; it is hard to see that they are twisted!

This particular lace does have a picot edge, each picot formed with a single thread loop. As a point of interest; for some reason, they are not consistent. Just one of those little things that is noticed as one examines and "reads" a piece of lace.

The straight edge on this particular piece is "part and parcel" of the segment. It is not sewn on separately... it is worked at the same time as the lacy part of the segment.

Bear in mind that this lace is not "woven" as bobbin laces are. So the mechanic's of construction are quite different. In needle laces; it is difficult to "follow the thread path" as it is worked one stitch at a time. What "SHOULD" be clearly visible is that there are "individual" stitches.

This piece would have been made much like the lower photo. Each lace maker responsible for a small segment - approximately 3 to 3 1/4" long x 3 1/8" deep.
Have a lovely day!
Leslie

 

Hi Leslie,
might be a silly question but I’m wondering if the lacemaker makes the mesh background as a plain panel first then does all the other pieces on top and then adds pieces. It just looks so complicated I can’t imagine how they start.

 

For the LIFE of me, I just cannot IMAGINE in my WILDEST dreams, doing something SO COMPLEX....AND SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! ALL BY HAND!!!!! How many months/years must it have taken someone to just complete a single 'hankie', and then who in the world would want to do anything with it other than just CARRY IT!!!!! Keep in mind that I've not been totally following this thread....just checking in on occasion.....it IS AMAZING!!!

 

NEVER a silly question! It actually is a very good question. But, no... In this form of fine needle laces, that isn't the mechanic's of it. I'll post a couple more pictures which might illustrate it a bit better.

 

WOW!! Thank you!!! AGAIN.....Amazing!!

 

To try and elaborate on Houseful's question; "It looks so complicated that I can't imagine how they start." I'm adding a couple more pictures.
The first photo shows an enlarged leaf - in progress. You can see how the design elements are outlined with a heavy cord/cordonnet/gimp (in this case, it looks like it is composed of several threads) and couched down to the pattern. Then the decorative hand applied stitches fill the design elements.

In the case of the very fine handmade Point d' France, that I highlighted in the first part of the article: Picture, if you will, all the little design elements (leaves, flowers, dots, buds)are constructed first (like the enlarged leaf above on the left but within the entire pattern segment).

Once that is complete, then the mesh/grid/net/ground would then be filled in between the design elements.

Once the completion of the mesh/grid/net/ground was finished, the piece could then be "embellished" with the raised work which would be worked OVER the heavy cord/cordonnet/gimp (as in the enlarged photo on the right next to the leaf).

In this case, instead of a mesh/grid/net or ground, like our Point d'France example, the connections are made with bars; which is a different form of needle lace (ie: Gros Point).

In answer to the question from Houseful: "I’m wondering if the lace maker makes the mesh background as a plain panel first then does all the other pieces on
top and then adds pieces."

Thank you, in fact for this great question! Yes, that method _IS_ utilized...but, not in the very fine needle lace that I was discussing today. I will discuss that in another lesson.

Yes, unbelievably time consuming, tedious, fussy, and required a delicate hand, good vision, CLEAN hands, and hours of backbreaking sitting. It does boggle the mind. I believe that is why so much handmade lace is identified as "machine", because so many can't fathom the hundreds of lace makers and hours that went into making these pieces! All, I may add; sometimes for the cost of a pallet and their daily bread!!

Leslie

 

It’s pretty humbling to think that they often earned so little from doing this incredible work.

 

Thank you again, Leslie.
In the province where I live, Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands, we mostly had needle laces like this. Also 'faux' needle laces, embroidered on a gauze ground, but still very beautiful and labour-intensive.

 

Thank you for your comment!
Leslie

 

I'm falling behind!!

Thanks for these thoughtful tutorials, Leslie(?)

I'm moving amid all this, so I'll have to catch up later

 

Glad you are joining us. Yes, I'm Leslie! More to come!