Tricia’s writing tonight and probably for most of the week on the progress of the spangle research. First, though, I wanted to let Kandy know that Carolyn’s beautiful lace pillow is indeed oval as it looks in the picture from a few days ago. And I wanted to send some thanks to Lyn, who sent me a list of thoughts and questions about the project, most of which will end up as blog posts. If you have some thoughts or questions, please let me know; I’ll answer or dig up the answers.

 

Tricia says:

 

I am writing a few updates on the progress of our research into how the spangles that are attached to the picots on bobbin lace were made. I am going to post our incomplete results in an attempt to share with you the research process and show how sometimes embroidery research is like looking for a ‘needle in a haystack’ (puns intended). Often you find some hints, go in a direction with those ideas and then look for other evidence to either support or redirect your hypothesis.

 

As you saw in the blog, a few weeks ago Mark (Blacksmith at the Plantation) and I sat down with highly magnified photographs of lace spangles taken from many original artifacts. These spangles are teardrop shaped. We could see that the edges were bent slightly and that the hole was offset towards the tip of the teardrop. At that time, we had a photo that showed a small divot in the rounded bottom of one spangle. 

 

We started with these photos and a description of spangle manufacture in the 18th century. Their manufacture is discussed by Gail Marsh in "18th Century Embroidery Techniques" (An excellent book!).  Unfortunately, the reference was not included in this description, something that often happens in embroidery manuals. The description goes this way:

 

 "There appears to have been two methods of manufacturing spangles.  The first consisted of taking a sheet of metal plate or foil and placing it on a suitable lead-topped table. The spangles were punched out using a metal stamp and a mallet. The shape and size of the spangles were determined by the stamp’s cutting edge and we know that there were stars, rosettes, leafs, and diamonds, as well as the common rounds. A separate tool with a sharp pointed end was used to punch out the holes in the centre or around the edge, depending on how the spangle was going to be attached to the fabric. 

The second method involved coiling a metal wire around a fine wooden dowel.  The resulting spring was cut along its length to make small wire rings. These rings were hammered flat to make the spangle, with the hole in the centre and an almost invisible join. The size would vary with the size of the original ring and the strength of the hammer blow. The various sizes would be graded and could be used for covering tapering, shaped motifs." (18th Century Embroidery Techniques by Gail Marsh, p. 43)

More tomorrow with our thoughts.

Tricia

 

I can hear some of you wishing for photos. Unfortunately we can’t post the research-purposes-only photos that Tricia took. But do go to the V&A website and look at the photos of the jacket. V&A website – www dot vam dot ac dot uk – collections; search the collections; enter “Laton jacket”, click search. You can enlarge any of the images. The ones of the hem and the cuff show spangles pretty clearly.

 

As compensation I include another of Lilia’s series on the hands of the September embroiderers. Do you recognize your hands or your work? I’m afraid I can’t remember which embroiderer these belong to.