Lace

Lace-making is an ancient craft. Lace is a lightweight, openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. more...

The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric.

Originally linen, silk, gold, or silver threads were used. Now lace is often made with cotton thread. Manufactured lace may be made of synthetic fiber. A few modern artists makes lace with a fine copper or silver wire instead of thread.

• Needle lace

Needle lace is made using a needle and thread. Some types can be made more quickly than the finest of bobbin laces. Some are the most time-consuming but the most flexible of the lace-making arts. Some purists regard Needle lace as the height of lace-making. The finest antique needle laces were made from a very fine thread that is not manufactured today.

• Cutwork

Cutwork, or whitework, is lace constructed by removing threads from a woven background, and the remaining threads wrapped or filled with embroidery.

• Bobbin lace

As the name suggests, Bobbin lace is made with bobbins and a pillow. The bobbins, turned from wood, bone or plastic, hold threads which are woven together and held in place with pins stuck in the pattern on the pillow. The pillow contains straw, preferably oat straw or other materials such as sawdust, insulation styrofoam or ethafoam. Also known as Bone-lace.

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