Bobbin lace: a dying art

Due to the mechanization of life, traditional arts and crafts are fading away. There was a time when achievements such as sewing, embroidery, crocheting or lace making were active in any girl of marriageable age. She increased her value as a housewife.

Today, “time” is a commodity that no one seems to have, not the harassed housewife or the office worker juggling work and housework. In addition, the earnings for hours of intricate work are meager.

So I was pleasantly surprised to meet an 82-year-old woman in the Midlands who was keen to pass on her lace-making skills before she left this earth. However, her students were in their sixties and seventies, her eyesight was not as good, nor were her fingers as nimble as they used to be. But what they lacked in skill, she made up for in enthusiasm. It was not only an opportunity to learn, but a moment of socialization and camaraderie.

He had never seen bobbin lace made in India (although one of the ladies said it had been introduced by colonial wives) and was intrigued by the skill and patience that went into its creation.

Bobbin lace or pillow lace differs from other types of lace in that multiple spools of thread are used to create the spider web patterns. The bobbins used can vary from 30 to 1,200, depending on the skill of the lacemaker and the complexity of the design. The coils can be simple wooden ones or fancy pieces with colorful beads and embellishments. Some of these are very expensive and have become collector’s items.

A circular pillow filled with straw or polystyrene is used as support. In Europe rectangular shapes are used. The pillow must be properly “dressed” before work can begin, which means the surface must be smooth and wrinkle-free. Another piece of material is spread over the lower half of the pillow, on which the coils rest.

A paper pattern is spread on the pillow, and the outline of the design is pinned to its surface with several pins. The loose ends of the bobbin threads are hooked around selected pins. Then by braiding, twisting, flipping up or down, back or forward, the most intricate patterns can be produced. “Throwing reels,” as this procedure is called, is an art that comes with practice. It takes a long time and cannot be rushed. Carelessness could lead to a mess of tangled threads, creating frustration instead of relaxation. It could take nearly three hours to make an inch of lace.

The thread used is mostly white or off-white cotton or linen. Colored threads may be used, as long as the colors do not bleed. Silk or metal threads have also been tried.

Bobbin lace first originated in Italy in the 15th century. It was from Venice and Milan that the art spread to Germany in the 16th century. It also spread to Great Marlow in England at the same time, where it flourished for three hundred years. It took almost a century for it to spread to other areas.

Because pins were very expensive, lace making was popular only among the wealthy and upper classes. But the poor and ingenious women used fishbones instead of pins. The expression “pin money” is probably derived from the custom of giving money to marriageable girls, so that they could buy pins as part of their dowry, so that they could make lace.

Pattern books on lace making were first printed in Zurich in 1561. The intricacies of knotting techniques were graphically explained. They were only available in German. Although the author of this book was a woman, she could not write under her name, but only use her initials, since women had a very low place in society. Gradually, special books were printed for the nobility and royalty, while simple instructions became available for the common people.

Italy, France, and eastern Belgium (Flanders) became famous lace-making centers. This provided a source of income for many women who were housebound. Lace was used to decorate clothes, cuffs, scarves (mantillas), and even on the edges of socks. Men loved to wear stockings with lace trim. Lace was also used for house clothes and church accessories. Certain garments used by the clergy were also trimmed with lace.

The nuns were the first to recognize it as a good source of income, and labor was obtained cheaply from orphans and children in their care. It was certainly a profitable industry, and “convent lace” became famous throughout Europe.

In France, Louis XIV promoted the manufacture of lace, heavily subsidizing the industry. He even prohibited the importation of lace from other countries.

In the Lauterbrunnen valley in Switzerland, I met another old and experienced master who is desperately trying to keep the art alive. He works in a small room cluttered with his paraphernalia and samples of intricate lace.

“Interest in bobbin lace is dying out fast,” he laments, “the arrival of machines has sounded the death knell for hand-made lace. And yet, this art flourished in Lauterbrunnen for three centuries from 1669 A shepherd was responsible for turning it into a cottage industry, seeing the poverty of his parishioners.Special courses were started in 1830, and many joined because they could earn 30 cents an hour of work.All the patterns were original and intricate. Our lace was as famous for workmanship as that produced in Brussels and Saxony.”

He showed me samples that incorporated oak leaves, acorns, and flowers into the designs. She even gave me a couple of wooden bobbins as a souvenir.

Patterns have varied over the centuries. During the Renaissance, geometric designs and symmetrical patterns were popular. But in the 17th and 18th centuries, under Baroque influence, they became more decorative, with intricate patterns of leaves and flowers. The most admired patterns were “English Point”, a six-sided mesh, Machelin and Valenciennes.

The end of handmade lace began in 1820, when John Levers invented the Levers machine. The machine combined coiling techniques with weaving techniques and produced lace in bulk. After 1920, machines completely took over. Socio-economic changes after World War I put an end to lace-making as a trade.

The art of bobbin lace is in its last throes. In the few old lace centers like Bruges, Brussels, Neuchatel and Lauterbrunnen, samples of lace can be bought at exorbitant prices.

Because some old “kloppel” makers refuse to let it die and are eager to pass on their skills to a reluctant younger generation, bobbin lace may still survive as an amateur art!