Creating a piCture

Making a new piece of Honiton lace is a long process that starts with a design. “The most challenging part of the process is deciding on the design, then preparing it correctly, so it is ready to start working on,” says Pat. “One of the women I teach is a wonderful artist. If I can’t get a drawing quite right, I pass it to her and she sorts it out for me.” The design is traced onto tracing paper. Pat then follows this first tracing, putting dots on a second piece around the outline of the design. This second tracing is placed on a piece of oiled Manilla card, a strong card treated with linseed oil. The dots she has made are pierced with a needle, marking the pattern on the card. Pins are placed in the holes on the card, which sits on a lacemaker’s pillow. Pat has already wound fine, white, two-ply thread on the ends of the bobbins, slim pieces of turned wood. She is now ready to start a process she describes as weaving the thread with pairs of bobbins round the silver-coloured pins. Each picture is constructed in sections. These vary in size depending on the image that the finished piece depicts. They may be small, just a flower face, or bigger, as with Pat’s fan, which comprises 11 sections in total. “Once you have the pattern you need to take time to work out the best place to start,” she says. “Experience helps with this, and the creation of the piece becomes instinctive. The first pin is then inserted, a pair of bobbins hung on it and off you go. It’s like anything else where you cease to think about it after a while. I still remember that moment in a class when I suddenly realised it was coming naturally and I didn’t have to think about it.” Slowly, the picture comes to life beneath her hands. The meticulous intricacy of the work demands a very orderly process. Pat is focused and methodical in her work, totally absorbed in her detailed creation. The number of pairs of bobbins in use at any one time is dependent on the width of the design at that point. As the design narrows, fewer threads are needed, and Pat reduces the number of pairs of bobbins. “That’s the freedom of Honiton lace. As I work, I watch the emerging pattern, not what my hands are doing with the bobbins. That way, I can see any mistake immediately. And I’m always working ‘upside down’, looking at what will be the underside of the finished piece.” The outlines of the design are created first before the central area is filled in with a criss-cross lacework. This filling is called leadwork, which Pat believes is named after the leaded lights of windows. When a section is finished, the pins are removed and the lace taken off the card. The finished piece will be the same size as the pattern on the card beneath it. Finally, the different sections are joined to create the finished picture, with the same thread that was used to make the lace.