This blog is about lace making--specifically, bobbin lace making. I actually started my class in late February and had so much fun! Tombolo (lace) has been around for hundreds, if not, thousands of years. In fact, we went to the Accademia Museum in Florence and there was a painting of the Annunciation and it showed Mary making lace!
The class was very interesting because, of course, no one spoke English! So, not only am I learning something completely new--but, I am learning it in Italian! Not to mention the fact that I haven't had too many opportunities to use words like tombolo (lace); fuselli (bobbins); spighetta (braid); spillo (straight pin); or uncinetto (crochet hook).
These are the bobbins.
My teacher (Pia) was so funny. She tried very hard to talk slow with me, but would soon forget and go back to speaking fast. She did a wonderful job of explaining how to do each step. Here is a video of Pia working on my lace so that you can see how it looks when someone who has been doing it for years does it!
This is another video of Pia. This one gives you a little more feel for the class. Sometimes it was so noisy you could hardly think and then all of a sudden it would be perfectly quiet!
One night I took a few pictures of the classes. The beginner's class just had two students. This is Francesca (with Pia) who was in my class. She is a pharmacist.
This is the second year's class. It was a much bigger class. Sometimes there would be 8 or 9 students as well as 3-4 teachers.
There was also a third year class, but there was only one student and she wasn't there the night I took the pictures. The student was a girl in her 20's who made some amazing things.
In this video I am demonstrating how my "technique" has improved somewhat over the course of a few months.
And in this video I'm showing you the most complicated stitch that I learned this year.
We all went out to dinner when the classes had finished. We ate (well, they ate) just antipasto (appetizers--including snails!). There were probably 15 different dishes brought out. I really enjoyed the meatballs and a few other items. Their bread was excellant!
This is how I started the night.
These are two of the first pieces I made. I saw one similar to the round one in Venice and they wanted 26euro for it. Since this one took me about 6 hours to make I don't think I would get rich if I tried to make a living at selling my lace!
Hope that you enjoyed your tombolo lesson!
Ciao
4 comments:
Wow. That's pretty impressive. I was thinking. How do you know how much string to put on each of the bobbin thingings to make whatever it is your making and what do you do if you run out of string before it is done?
Sz, I am sooo impressed with your skills because I know it isn't easy at all! Years ago I bought a bobbin lace kit thinking i could teach myself-ha! The kit is till unopened a iI am terrified of it!
I love lace and wish I could find a clas somewhere in NJ!
Brava Sz!! beautiful work.
By the way, you have a lovely speaking voice!
Deb
xo
WOW I'm shocked! I tried lace making once.....waaaayyyy too complicated for me. Beautiful pieces.
Maureen
Thanks guys for the comments! I don't know how yuo figure out the thread length. I just kept winding until I got tired! When you run out of thread or if it breaks you need to tie a special knot and wind more on the bobbin!
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