Lace Bobbin 'Old Dears' have a Spa Day!

These bobbins were destined for the bin.  Rescued despite being seen as past their best and of no further use.  Their only crime was that they carried the marks and dust of abandonment and old age.  Worn smooth by decades of making bobbin lace, their loveliness was hidden by the dust and grime of many years of neglect. Such is the nature of abandoned things, to be lost in a forgotten box, thrown in an attic, shoved to the back of a cupboard.

Before

Today, some of them enjoyed a treatment at the 'bobbin spa', and now look willing to jump back into action.

 

All of these hold threads and work well. Would you throw any away?

I used what I had to hand.  These are not prized possessions, rare collectables or prime examples of a famous wood turner's art, they are tools so I only intended to make them useable again, despite their damage and neglect. 

All of them were dull and dusty, looking shabby and dry, well past their best.  I can understand why someone would see them as having no further use, but, if new lacemakers are prepared to learn bobbin lace using clothes pegs, pens, and even barbeque skewers in place of bobbins, why not let these 'old dears' have a new life?

The main issue is the heads.  Many of the heads are chipped, leaving an incomplete top head (on a double headed bobbin).  This is not necessarily a problem, I tested many of these by winding thread on and seeing if the hitch would hold as it was unwound during work.  Maybe there is a teeny bit of an uneveness in the unwinding, but the top head is worn so smooth it doesn't catch or rub the thread so, unless it wouldn't hold a hitch, I left the tops on.  If the top wouldn't hold a hitch, I removed the top and sanded and buffed smooth the bulb of the head so that the hitch would simply move down and be made at the top of the thread like most single headed bobbins (Honiton or bolster bobbins only have one head). 

If the top was only chipped a bit, but rough, I sanded then buffed the area using 400 grit sandpaper followed by 3,000 grit sandpaper, you can use a fine nail file followed by a nail buffer which is incredibly fine and gives a good result.

To clean the body, I made use of my husband's fretboard cleaner which is a special lemon oil designed to clean the fancy wood on a guitar neck.  There will be specialist cleaners and resoratives for this sort of job, but I used what was to hand.   I poured a little of the cleaner onto a tissue and used a stencil brush to work into the grooves to flick away the accumulated dust and grime.  I quickly wiped the bobbin to remove dirt or excess oil and left on tissue to air off for a few hours.  This commercial preparation of lemon oil does evaporate in time, but it can be drying so I didn't want to leave the bobbins coated with it for longer than necessary.  Worth reading the instructions!

One before a Spa treatment on left, one after a Spa day on right

Sometimes older bobbins have bands of pewter, sometimes with extra bits of design along the length of the body.  The quality of the pewter makes a big difference to it's longevity and many pewter decorations are long gone, leaving the deep grooves empty. Many different combinations of metals are used, and the combination can dictate which decorations will last, and which will crumble away.  Lead is also used in pewter, so sand and buff with care  A rather good article on pewter decoration on lace bobbins is available here

https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/webdocs/lb_plbbn.pdf

Lightly cleaned pewter band bobbins

The bobbins look lovely with their sheen and colour restored but I wanted to take them a step further.  I used a specialist antique and craft wax made by Liberon to give them a quick wipe over, rested for 20 minutes, then buffed to a sheen.  This helps to seal the wood and give it a little nourishment.  The wax is said to be fingerprint resistant!  The neutral option does not add colour, and only a satin sheen.  The clear option does intensify the colour and gives a glossier finish.  I didn't want to use any of the coloured options, not going to risk any getting on the thread.  Always check the safety information when using the oil or the wax.

To remove heads or tails which have been damaged beyond saving, I use a small, fine tooth, hacksaw.  I rest my bobbin on a piece of ethafoam which the bobbin can snuggle into as it is sawed.  Maybe there are special clamps but I wasn't prepared to squeeze a bobbin into a bench vice!  Some will just snap off, showing that they wouldn't have lasted long anyway. 

I made some little videos on some of the bobbins here 

https://www.youtube.com/@LesleysLace

Heart Wing Butterfly.

Keeping in with the recent heart theme, here's a little butterfly to play with. 

 

I used this pattern to experiment with making a tape lace, but not by using the traditional bolster pillow.  I used my favourite block pillow, which I work at an angle, and a circular block so I can turn the work easily.  I used my spangled Midlands bobbins instead of the continentals I have been using on the bolster pillow while learning Idrija lace.  A 15 x 8cm hemmed cloth is used to cover the pins as the thread moves over them.  I wanted to see if the tape laces could be made and sewn as easily with equipment which is more familiar to me.    

The butterfly measures 8 cm and used 7 pairs.

I started with the antennae, two twists around the first pin to fit a magic thread to help join the antennae to the edge of the wing later on. Single thread picots helped hold the plait in place around the curve. 

The body was worked next, with magic threads on the left, and hanging pairs on the right. Place pins close together for a denser filling.  Start with five pairs, making the center passive in half stitch.  Add a sixth passive and use half stitch on the two center passives.  You can alter the passives to cloth or half stitch in the narrow sections, leave any colour or glitter threads in cloth stitch. 

The corners were worked by leaving behind two pairs at the inside.  Work to the edge and back, leaving the worker and using the last passive worked out to the edge and back. Pick up the waiting worker and work to the pin and back, taking in the final two waiting pairs.  Because I used a glitter thread on the very outside, I used a temporary pin inside it on the point, the glitter thread has a slight stretch to it and can try and pull away from a pin used on the outside curve or point. 

The second side was worked the same way, with the pairs added by using the magic threads already in place.

Play about with different stitches and methods, throw in a few sequins, have fun!  Do let me see what you make by posting on the Lesley's Lace facebook page or group. 

A .pdf is available in the Files section of the Lesley's Lace facebook page. 

Swirly Turtle

 Swirly Turtle

I designed this little turtle to practice the Idrija corners and bar techniques.   I cannot call it 'Idrija' because the lace is a protected name, so I can only say I used those techniques as best I can. 

Five to six pairs.  Idrija 30 thread, or any good cotton at 30 wraps per centimeter.  The gold thread is about 16 wraps per centimeter, a crochet thread about number 20 perhaps.    Lay the threads inside the trail, if they fit nicely, then they are the right size.  If they go outside the lines, either reduce the size of the thread. You need a minimum of 4 passive pairs so lay 8 threads inside the lines.  

Start at the arrow shown near the tail.  This leads you to work the inside swirl before making the outer edges and avoids working over too many pins. 

I wanted to create a piece using lots of bars.  The tensioning issues created left me with asymetrical sewings, despite using the same number of twists, obviously I haven't quite got the hang of them yet!

The outside edge was made using two worker pairs, I had hoped that this would give a smooth, more turtle like appearance but it does tend to push the passives towards the inside of the trail.  I would prefer to use a thick passive thread and place the pin inside the worker and the thick thread.   There are lots of different edges, just use which one you like.   

The whole turtle is just one trail.  The center passive pair, the thick gold glitter, has two passives one side, and one passive the other, this meant I had to move a passive across to make the corners to avoid using the thick gold in the fixing stitches.

There are two sizes, the larger one allows for using a thicker thread, or you can just use more passives to fit the trail.  

There are no pinholes marked in this pattern, you can choose if you want the outer trail to be worked with pinholes closely worked, or spread out.  With the thick thread, the wider pinholes do work quyite nicely.