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Tess & The Professor - the online digital archive of weaving and lacemaking

19/7/2022

Back in May 1999, Professor Ralph E Griswold began a project to create a home for scanned documents relating to weaving, including lacemaking. This came about due to his retirement. He started to research the mathematical aspects of weaving and through this the on-line database was launched.

Professor Griswold was part of the computing team at the University of Arizona. The on-line Digital Archive was housed on the UAZ servers.

The first document added was Cyrus Uhler's Draught and Cording, made from scans done at Lebanon Valley College Library. The first document scanned locally was de Lantsheere's Trésor de L'Art Dentellier from a dilapidated original purchased at a sale at the University of Arizona Library.

The key requirement was for the material to be either out of copyright or for the author to have given permission for the work to be added.

As of today, there are over 9k pdfs available, including 4.7k articles and 9.1k pdf documents, of which over 470 are books that you can download.

The lace world came to know of this project and help with it through the work of Tess Palmer on the Arachne mail lists.

Tess began her partnership with the Professor as a willing partner to scan lace documents and a great partnership began.

She would keep us informed on how the work was going, seek out contributors and put translators in touch with the Professor. Over the next few years, we became used to seeing emails about Tess & the Professor in our feeds telling us about new uploads and searches for out of copyright material to be added.

As lacemaking became a major focus in the archive, it was promoted to it's own section.

In order to make choosing a document to download easier, low res sample pages were added to many of the documents so you could 'try before you buy'.

These days, that seems a strange thing to do but when the archive was created, many were still on dial up so downloading a pdf could take 15 - 30 minutes and then to find out it didn't contain what you were looking for was a shock.

Sadly, Professor Griswold passed away on 4th October, 2006. His pioneering work in computer science reached out far further than Arizona. His impact for lacemakers through the archive has been a wonderful memorial to this great man.

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When a lacemaker's thoughts turn to weddings ...

12/7/2022

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There comes a point in most lacemaker's lives when someone they love wants to get married.

And what could be more natural than to offer to make a garter for the bride.

Whatever you decide to make, as a gift to the bride, you are placing each and every pin with love and care.

You get to add a touch of colour for the 'something blue' and as an item you have created it is the 'something new' for the bride.

So, what do you need to think about?

How long do you have?
If the wedding is two months away and you work full time, then deciding on making a piece that is 6" wide and needs to be a over a yard long may not be the best idea.

What type of things does the bride like?
If your bride is non traditional, would they really want a garter? There are other things you could make that may be more to their liking.

Where are you on your lacemaking journey?
A year into learning to make lace I thought it would be a really good idea to make a garter. It was a hell of a learning curve. I chose a pricking with just a photo attached to it. Yep, I got there in the end, but boy was it a ride.

So, what are your options?

Bookmark
For a bride planning on getting married in a church, with a traditional service, such as having a mass or communion, a bookmark to go in their order of service is a lovely personal gift.

This is a great choice for the beginner lacemaker as it's not a big project, there are lots of different patterns out there and you can often use a blue gimp thread to outline, which lets you add in your 'something blue'

Bracelet and other jewelry
A lace bracelet is a very personal gift between a lacemaker and a bride.

It is important to speak with the bride, before the wedding, to ensure that what you are creating will work with their dress and accessories.

A headdress, fascinator, necklace, these are all great options to explore.

Handkerchief
When I got married, my mum lent me a handkerchief that I had given her as my 'something borrowed'.

A lace corner is a great choice for a simple handkerchief adornment rather than a full lace edging.

And remember, bucks point corners are a more modern invention, previously the lace was made in a length and ruffled round the edges so if you are not so confident with corners this could be the solution for you.

Sixpence Keepers
The idea of giving a sixpence to the bride was to ensure prosperity in the marriage.

When my grandfather was courting my grandmother, he didn't have that much money (it was the 1920s) so, being a blacksmith and farrier, he took some threepenny bits and drill holes at the edge.

He then joined them to make a bracelet for my grandmother.

I inherited a couple of these, so when my nephew got married, I chose to make a sixpence keeper from A Simply Sparkle Wedding and place one of the threepenny bits there.

The bucks point took me two weeks of evenings and the weekend in-between (around 65 hours). I knew about the wedding a year out.

Naturally, I started making the lace 10 days before the wedding. Procrastination you are my god.

Garters
The garter tradition means that you are giving a very intimate gift to someone that has a large amount of work in it.

When thinking about how much time you will need to make a garter, think of the traditional garter as like making two strips of lace that happen to be joined in the middle. This means that you aren't just making the length needed for the garter, but making twice as much because you need a left and right side to be made at the same time.

The garter that I made took around 200 hours work. Today, 30 years later, I would estimate that I could have made this torchon garter in around 150-160 hours.

Options

Make a traditional, double-sided garter
Make a single sided garter where the lace is attached to an elasticated ribbon at the top and the lace drops down below
Make a double sided garter, but using two strips of narrow lace that you attach to the elasticated ribbon - this is an excellent option for the newer lacemaker.

To make an elasticated ribbon, you sew two pieces of ribbon together, to make a channel, then put the elastic inside. The lace can then be sewn onto the channel.

Fans
An alternative to a garter is a fan. These can be full size or miniature. Overall, a fan is going to take far more hours to create than a garter and you will need to bear in mind that it will need to be mounted onto fan sticks.

If these are bespoke, then also budget time for them to be created.

Where next?

Why not try out the book blog for some inspiration. I've even added in a wedding category. Just click on the button below.

Weddings - Book Blog

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Tess & The Professor - the online digital archive of weaving and lacemaking

When a lacemaker's thoughts turn to weddings ...

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