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Message:: [QUOTE="Northern Lights Lodge, post: 10375355, member: 13464"]Hi Joan,What a pretty little piece! Unusual, pretty apron, for sure! I can't say I've ever seen one with a back "V" neck like that, all the pintucks and the beautiful embroidery! I've given careful examination to the lace... unclear if I'm looking at the front or the back or both... That said... here's what I can tell you... *Yes, I think you have pegged it correctly as machine Valenciennes! Good JOB! A+++ *This lace is made it was made by working the long length... not shortwise. *The netting area, looks as if it is supposed to be a hex ground, which is constructed with four thread bars or braids (which "should" lay flat) and then at the end of the bar/braid, 2 threads (or 1 pair) splits off to the left and 2 threads (or 1 pair) splits off to the right. In comparison with your piece, the cross overs to new bars (or braids) look garbled and the entire net area appears to be made of "round braids" rather than flat ones. Refer to the blue circle on photo below. This seems "odd", since if you compare to other similar connections, they are not all like that - some DO appear to be woven. I can't "quite" make it out... but it appears that threads in that blue circle, have come from the above braids and just looped around the one on the bottom...giving it a "looped" appearance rather than an actual braided connection.  If you compare to other similar connections, they are not all like that - some DO appear to be woven. Very inconsistent. *If you review the first Valenciennes Lesson #7 top image, and compare the look of the grounds or netting. Although they are a slightly different shape than your example, the crossings of the pairs in the Lesson example are much "tighter", but all connections appear to actually be woven together. *Also, in the yellow circles (and there are other locations that I didn't circle); note that there are "cut offs" or which have frayed. Although it is possible to find "cut offs" and frays in hand made pieces; this is amount is excessive and would indicate that threads were added in and then just "cut off" where not needed. Again if you refer to the Valenciennes Lesson #7 top image, you can see some very tiny shadows or bumps on the right hand side of some of the design elements. I should have taken a front photo also...but I believe these are the "cut offs". The cloth stitch is so TIGHT in the design elements, that those cut off threads are indeed cut off very closely to the lace work itself and is very, very unlikely to ever become anymore unravelled or come loose from the body of the element. [ATTACH=full]521870[/ATTACH] *In the photo below, the blue and yellow indicate the outline threads in this lace. In this instance, if you follow the blue line, it is very inconsistent. Sometimes it is 2 threads next to each other and sometimes it appears to be a braid, sometimes it is loosely twisted, sometimes not twisted at all. *In following the yellow highlighted area, this also appears to be an outline thread... but again it is not consistent. It "should" be constructed of at least a few threads which run continuously around the outer edge of the elements; but, it seems to start and stop at different points and then, sometimes, only contains threads which are entering or exiting the design element. If you go back and review the Valenciennes Lesson #7, first image; review how neatly the outline is managed around the elements...it is a single pair that the ground/netting pairs and the element threads work through (in and out of)...the outline threads stay true to themselves as a pair of threads. [ATTACH=full]521871[/ATTACH] *Lastly, if we examine this last photo... I've marked frayed cut offs on each side of the ball element... this seems to indicate that the extra threads which were needed to make the ball sufficiently filled, were added on one side (perhaps the on the right) and removed on the other (perhaps on the left)... which indicates to me that the extra threads just ran parallel over the netting (or ground) as loose threads, worked in and out of the ball element and were cut off on both sides when the lace was "finished off". *In the examination of the yellow highlighted "peaked" area... threads are very inconsistent - coming in and going out, twisted or not twisted... just very odd. *The blue highlights are in regard to the picot edge. In handmade bobbin lace, "picots" or the little loop on the edge, can be made with either a single - tightly twisted thread, so that it twists up tightly on itself, is pinned through the twist and the thread moves on. Or there are a number of ways that a picot can be worked with 2 threads, none of which seem to be worked in the below example...sorry. Clearly, 2 threads have been utilized, but only a few picots appear to have ANY twists in them - usually these are just looped out and go back into the work, as shown in the blue circle below. [ATTACH=full]521898[/ATTACH] The yellow "V" that comes out, appears to do a picot and goes back up into the cloth stitch area, looks the "closest" to what "should" be occurring. But, the blue boxes show that that "V" area is very square and it rather "looks" as if the threads come out of the cloth stitch area and more or less work into that edge braid (indicated by the blue line) that allows the loopy picot "out" and then those pairs work back into the braid and is later let out to go back into the cloth stitch area. Ultimately, "consistency" is the key with handmade lace. I find that, generally,  in handmade bobbin lace, mistakes are are "one off's"...meaning the lacemaker skipped a pin, or took the wrong worker, something that is either omitted in the work or corrected by the next repeat. I find this piece to be very inconsistent, pretty much everywhere. Sorry! The tension is inconsistent, stitches are inconsistent, picots are truly just - worked incorrectly... and yet, I've never seen a piece of machine made lace made quite like this! At a distance it is positively lovely! I always enjoy scrutinizing a piece of lace, whether it be hand or machine... this one was truly different! Thanks for sharing!Cheerio,Leslie[/QUOTE]

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