The Fine Art of Bobbin Lace

How could I not?

My first encounter with the art of bobbin lace was really just a shoebox full of antique lace bobbins. When confronted with such enchanting objects, how could I not try to figure out what they were and how to use them. Happily, not long after I “confiscated” them from a fascinating trove of textile related tools that my husband had purchased from an estate some years ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a workshop with Laura Friesal, an amazing artist from the Princeton area. You can see her work at laurafriesel.com.

She, in turn, introduced me to another wonderful lace teacher, Holly Van Sciver of vansciverbobbinlace.com.

Bobbin lace has been made for a few hundred years, throughout Europe primarily, and different regions have evolved their own styles. I have experimented with several of them.

A few weeks ago my guild asked me to present a program on bobbin lace for our April meeting.

Where shall I start? What images shall I use?

There were several old books that I hadn’t even opened, not once, before this request. And now that I have actually started to dig into them, I cannot put them down. I am meeting some fascinating people, mostly women, in the pages of these books. I hope to introduce you to one or two of them between now and April.

Stay tuned!