I just want to throw in my 2 cents worth - I have Jill Nordfors' book from long ago, before I even started making lace. Personally I would not regard most of that book as lace. She focuses on detached buttonhole stitch laid on top of the base fabric, and that fabric remains as part of the finished work. I would class this as embroidery, just as stump work is a 3 dimensional form of embroidery. I do think transparency or holes are a necessary part of lace, because the aesthetic is different for embroidery and for lace. In embroidery color is usually a primary factor, with raised work, layers and textures an added element of appeal. With lace the division of the surface into areas of different textures, weaves and densities is where the design focus has to be. I don't think color needs to be excluded from lace. I have used color right from the start, when I was learning. But color does add a problem to lace, in that it often obscures the density variations. One of my own pieces demonstrated this to me when I tried to photograph it. When I backlit the piece the density variations really stood out. But the color variations disappeared. (I used white and shades of off-white randomly throughout the piece.) When I frontlit the piece the color variations were really obvious, but the density variations disappeared. So I had to both light it from the front and from behind to get a good photo. It took all day and a horrendous backache to achieve it.
http://lynxlace.com/images/r12l.jpg Lorelei - 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/
