I will readily admit that I bought this piece of lace as I couldn’t identify it. My research is still ongoing!
It’s a perfect piece, I doubt that it has ever been sewn onto a dress. It is a tape lace, the tape being looped into the design and then stitched and embroidered with needlelace stitches into place. The tape is about 3mm wide, so the work is very fine. It is possibly called Vermicelli lace and from Armenia. My piece is 7cm x 1.30m.
The last piece that I purchased at the Decorative Antique Textile Fair in London in October is this silk shawl.
It is from India, silk fabric with silk embroidery using straight, running and seeding stitches. It is 54cm x 1.30cm. It is a Bengali Kantha shawl. It looks great hanging from the end wall in my studio, where the sun does not fall. Believed to have been made in the 1940’s.
We are heading into Winter here, the days are shortening and the darkness creeps further into each day. If the sun shines I nip out to the studio to test colours and to take any photographs, making the most of what light there is.
I am beginning a Collaboration with a fellow Book Artist and Printmaker and next time I post I will start to write about it.
Annwyn Dean 