English Bobbin lace threads
2,5 months! That’s how far Belgium from Russia is! I ordered these silk threads in the beginning of December and only yesterday I was able to get my package. Unbelievable! My tracking number (I got it with the package, ha! 🙂 says that the threads arrived to Russia on the 1st of February, which I can hardly believe. But who cares now, I got my treasures! 🙂
Though I still blame those New Year holidays.
Among all these goodies – white and black silk #300, #200, super fine egyptian cotton #240, also silk 100/2 and black silk 80/2 (which was given as a present).
To compare the thickness – from left to right – white silk #300, then cotton #240 then black silk #300 and then Russian silk #65.
Silk #300 is super fine, I could hardly make a photo of a thread, I got used to cotton #170, but this one should be super hard I guess. I can’t think of a better color for paper (for prickings) and the size of a needle for sewing the work.
I also saw silk #320 on the site, but I felt that it would be too much, besides it was available only in grey color.
Here’s the site where I got all these wonderful threads – http://www.bart-francis.be/index.php?action=home&lang=EN
I almost got lost there, there are too many nice things to buy, knitting threads, for embroidery ( could easily be my next on the shopping list) – it’s amazing.
The only problem was – there was no information about delivery to Russia, so you couldn’t just order it from site. But it wasn’t the first time for me when I was discovering Russia for European countries 🙂 so I wrote them and everyone was very nice and helpful. And I got my present too! 🙂
So if you need some good, really good threads for your bobbin lace work, it’s a great place to explore.
Lots of stuff
Last week I was busy with making a fringe for my first chandelier, this was the first time I was making it with bobbins and silk. Here how it looked:
The problems started when I tried it on, the fringe wasn’t wide enough, if there would be just two extra millimeters – I’d be the happiest person. I was a bit upset, two days of work and all for nothing. I had to use pre-made fringe from the local craft store. I also think that I made a huge mistake using silk, it looks just fine on furniture but not on chandelier, you’d need much coarser thread than silk, metal threads are really the best choice here. And this time I was quite happy with the result.
Tea o’clock
I can’t stop playing with all those minis I bought recently:
Holidays
Just came back from the wonderful two weeks in Cyprus, it was amazing! We were very lucky with weather, not too hot and not cold, perfect temperature for sunbathing and swimming. What is more important – no Internet, it was a great chance to take some time off it.
At first, I was thinking of buying some minis, but then decided against it. It was just the time for ourselves. Before the trip I started making a simple Buck Point lace sample, it was a bit tricky for me, because it looks very easy, but you have to be very careful not to make any mistakes, as there’s a huge amount of pins; you just don’t see anything. And, obviously, I made some. Though, I have to admit, I like the result despite all of this.
I need to get back to Torchon book after that, several samples are not done yet.
Another bobbin lace spam
I finished the second lesson yesterday, the third one turned out to be circular border.
Bobbin lace again
Still learning the basics of Bedfordshire bobbin lace. Love it! I did the projects from two DVDs already, another two still waiting. I also decided to go through the projects from a very good book on this kind of lace – Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons.
This is the first one, I’m almost happy with it, I really liked this cotton thread, easy to work with. The piece of lace to the right – is the one from DVDs, hm, it was too early for me to work with such pattern, I didn’t quite understand several tips there at the moment, but now I would be fine 🙂 Well, almost.
The second pattern from the book, almost done:
New bobbins
Be ready to see lots and lots of new posts about bobbin lace! Just kidding. Two packages from UK arrived just before May holidays, and I’m very excited, I think a bit too much:) Don’t know why but I especially enjoy ordering something from UK shops, they pack everything so neatly and lovely, you’ll always find a note from an owner, which is also very cute thing. Well, it’s not common in Russia, just to be clear.
I ordered beginners set – 25 pairs of birch bobbins, that turned out to be much much smaller than Russian ones, on the photo below Russian is on the left:
Spring time
I’m working on commissions lately, lots of work and I practically have no time for my own projects. And it’s +20 outside, spring has come at last! Love this time of year.
Recently I came across Natalia’s post about bobbin lace, I always wanted to try it, even started making my own bobbins but realized that it was taking too much time, so I dropped it. Two weeks ago I decided to try again, I ordered bobbins set and roller pillow. It was a fantastic experience for me. Though I realized that the bobbins I was using were only good for Russian (Vologda) lace, where thicker threads are used (mainly linen), and I was more interested in Bedfordshire lace. So I made two pairs of English bobbins, spangled them, I also made a block pillow, which worked just fine for me.
Here’s my first try with a silk thread, it’s 9 mm wide lace. A bit too wide for this thread, but I’m working on it 😉 I decided to take it slow and learn the basics before trying to make it in miniature, so I’m afraid it will take some time to show something new.