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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Answering Queries 

I often get queries from folks who seem to know I love needlework trivia and have a decent library of needlework and art books in which to delve for answers. I always try my best to help out on questions with the exception of the "tell me everything you know about blackwork" sort which I like to think were sent out of naivete and not general laziness of the sender.

As with any other discipline, it helps to have a few "ready reference" sort of core books with which to start one's quest.

When it comes to needlework, I have two favorites which I heartily recommend:

The Larousse Encyclopedia of Embroidery Techniques by Gay Swift ISBN 0 88332 365 6

and The Needleworker's Dictionary by Pamela Clabburn ISBN 0 688 03054 8

And every once in a while, someone wanders over to my wish list at Amazon and sends a nice little pressie my way in the way of a thank you.

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Comments:
Thanks for the references- will put them on my wish list!
 
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Monday, November 03, 2008

Slow Reading - Good Book 

Still a little itchy so I've been reading a good deal. I'm less inclined to scratch with a book in my hands.

Pat Earnshaw is one of my favorite experts and I'll add any book of hers to my collection. This in spite of the fact that her great love is lacemaking. Her research is extensive and well documented; her writing style straightforward and easily understood (without dumbing down her subject); and she chooses to write about the facets of a given subject focusing on the very questions I would ask were we sitting over a cuppa.

Currently I'm taking my time reading Lace In Fashion From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries ISBN 0 9513891 3 0.

Illustrated to clearly explain every point made by Ms. Earnshaw and including useful bits such as a chart of "the interrelations of royal and noble houses in the sixteenth century, which facilitated a uniformity of fashion throughout the Courts of Europe."

She also asks us to look at lace from a different approach than I had done before: single thread (needlelaces) and multi-thread (bobbin laces, etc.)

Illustrations mostly B&W but enough color plates to satisfy one's appetite for glitz.

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Comments:
This sounds interesting- I've only done tatting and bobbin lace.

Glad you seem to be slowly getting better.
 
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