When I was 14 years my grandmother teached me to do bobin lace. I still remember I drove to her house on my bike twice a week and she sat there next to me, explaining how to make the different kinds of patterns.
For me the pattern called "spider" was difficult, but my grandmother Doris had this patience and she kept on untill I got it into my fingers. Many years later I were the one who still came to her house, helping her when she became to old to remember. Again it was the "spider" that was difficult.
All this bring out good memories. My grandmother was a woman who knew how to work with her hands and a couple of years later I started to weave. Unfortunately she passed away the year I were lucky to be accepted to the Danish School of Design in Copenhagen.
I think my fascination into the gauze technique started at this time, as to me the gauze have this lace like apperence I am fascinated by.
The first bobin lace I did at the age of 14. This was meant to be sewn onto a handkerchief. The "spider" is next to the edge and in the middle is the heart. This pattern is of course very simple, but to me as the first I did so complicated.
In 2007 I went to London to a textile conference held by ETN -the European Textile Network. In the weekend I went to the fleamarket on Bortobello Road. There was a stall full of bobin lace; big shawls, handkerchiefs, parts to be sewn onto dresses etc. Here I was lucky to find this piece with beads which is from the biginning of the 19th Century. It contains of five of the above pieces and I think it is meant to be sewn onto a blouse, dress in the neckline.
Last week I went to Skals Haandarbejdsskole in Jutland to teach in weaving. This school I went to when I was 16 years old, just finishing my primary school. It was the first time I went away from home. This was the starting point for me and it was an eye opening into the textile world. 22 years later I was asked if I wanted to come back, this time as a teacher in weaving.
At the school it is possible to learn different kinds of subjects; embroidery, sewing, weaving etc. and you can do courses in different kinds of length.
I deceided to do a class in japanese yarns from Nakachuu, which I visited last year when travelling in Japan. They have the most beautiful yarns many of them in paper, with different kinds of treatments onto the surfaces, bast fibers, wool /steel, silk /steel etc. All of the yarns can be bought through Nakachuu in Nishijin, Kyoto and some of them through the danish organisation; Garnindkoebningsforeningen of 1998.
Yarns in cotton mix (black/white also known as number 33-A), silk bouclé, thin transperant paper, silk with some kind of treatmend on the surface, silk thread woven in about ½ cm width and many more.
The course lasted a week and I had several samples with me the students were going to weave.
One of the samples was woven in a honeycomb structure. This is just a little part of it from my weavingprogram called Weavepoint. I like sitting and working with it and then take all the knowledge onto the loom, working with the different kinds of yarns, seeing how they react.
In this set-up the warp was a one-thread linen and three different kinds of samples came out of it. All of them made on the same tying, but woven differently.
Here a silk -white with a treatment on the surface is woven in the plain weave, from Nakachuu. The black yarn is called ANTARA and is from Garnindkoebningsforeningen. Woven into the plain /floating area. This textile become very graphic because of the contrast.
Here ANTARA is woven into the plain area and the black /white, number 33-A into the plain /floating area. The textile is beautiful in the tone-in-tone hues of the black.
A paper yarn called KOYORI M/C 1/6, black is woven into the plain structure and a funny bristling yarn; a cotton thread surrounded with the bristling small paper in white. Woven in the plain /floating area.These three samples I think can be used for pillow covers. I have already woven the two first samples and just need to sew them.
Here is a twill /plain variation I did some years ago in Trevira CS. For this course I only change the yarns and a totally different kind of textile came out of it. The samples get a ricepaper look. The warp is the transperant paper and the silk treated so the surface get a different kinds of feel and touch.
Here ANTARA is woven in the twill area and the one-thread linen in the plain.
The KOYORI paper yarn is used in the weft. Black in the twill and white in the plain.
In 2007 I went to London to a textile conference held by ETN -the European Textile Network. In the weekend I went to the fleamarket on Bortobello Road. There was a stall full of bobin lace; big shawls, handkerchiefs, parts to be sewn onto dresses etc. Here I was lucky to find this piece with beads which is from the biginning of the 19th Century. It contains of five of the above pieces and I think it is meant to be sewn onto a blouse, dress in the neckline.
