Hi Sue, I was reading your long email about your trials and tribulations and how you were in the doldrums of lace making that some of us fall into at different times. I was sorry to hear of your losses in the family and send you my condolences, and Ihope your nephew recovers successfully from his operation. I was also touched that seeing my poppy design helped you get your mojo back.
At the present I am making a six pointed Russian star for a Jewish friend who wants a lace donation for a charity event she is helping plan. I started it on Sunday, and not having the correct linen thread, I started making it using DMC Cordonnet 20. It filled the spaces but looks so heavy that this afternoon I undid the two points of the star to start again. This time I am going to use DMC 50, but put in more passives to fill the spaces. I have made this pattern before, probably 20 years ago, and had it mounted between two circular pieces of glass with a simple stained glass red border. I used thin thread, as I probably had no idea how thick Linen 30/3 was back then. It has sat in the window of two homes, each time in full sunlight, and it has not come to any harm yet. It will probably outlast me. I remember that the lady who mounted the lace in the glass delivered it to my home rather than trusting the mail, and I was working on a simple Schneeberger cat designed by ! Lia Baumiester. She was enthralled with it and asked me how much I would charge to make some for her. I enquired of lace friends and they said $25, which is what she charged for the glass piece. Needless to say she never ordered any. :-) At the time, she was mounting those "handmade" Chinese doilies in her glass pieces which she probably got for $3 each. This Saturday my guild start demonstrating at the San Diego County Fair where we were asked to teach fair goers how to make lace. We chose a very simple fish design and the thread will be hung onto large plastic paperclips. Can't use brooch pins in case the little dears prick themselves. The organizers wanted us to do 100 fish per three hour session!! Obviously they have never seen bobbin lace being made. That has been revised to 20 fish, but we will see how it goes. Any bets on how many get made on Saturday. There will only be two of us doing the teaching, and getting the pillows ready for the next students. We will have a have a go snake on a pillow for those who only want to try a row or two. Janice Janice Blair Murrieta, CA, jblace.com - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
