Sequins, Spangles, Paillettes, Oe My!
Tonight’s post was written by Wendy, a Spangle Quester with a background in metal work and jewelry making. I know the lacers wish we wouldn’t call the teardrop shaped metal bits that will be worked into the bobbin lace “spangles”. To lacers, spangles are a hoop of beads affixed to the end of a particular kind of lacemaking bobbin. Be-spangled bobbins are for a certain kind of lace making, and I’ve been told the spangles weight the bobbins thus aiding the tensioning in that kind of lacemaking. However, having seen some of these bobbins, I think they may just be an excuse for pretties on the fiber tools. (OK lacers, I know you’re out there. Tell us the real story.) We keep using the term, though, to distinguish between the teardrop shaped metal bits on the lace and round metal bits (we’re calling them sequins) that will be sewn to the jacket in between the gold and silk embroidery. In the 17th century round sparkly metal bits sewn decoratively to a garment were sometimes called “oes”, as in the plural of ‘o’. Anyway, as you can see Wendy found a morass of terminology in the historical record:
Being involved with the jacket has been a wonderful experience so when Tricia said to me “you need to look at these and see what you think” I was more than curious. As mentioned in a previous entry Tricia and Mark had examined the spangles under magnification and were able to draw some conclusions, take measurements and ask even more questions. So I began first to look for anything “written”- after all these are over 400 years old- but because they were not a “necessity” and were used on a woman’s garment what if anything would be out there?
First-
While digging for information on spangles (those “twitty little things” -PF) I found that the terms used were not necessarily consistent and that there were not usually references to the origin or a cited work- frustrating but nonetheless intriguing.
Spangle – contemporary - used almost interchangeably for sequins which come in two styles – flat and cupped. Paillettes refers to the large sequin disks with either one or two holes punched at the top edge (this helps create a “fish scale” look by hiding the stitching which secures them to the ground fabric).
Spangles as used prior to 1850 refer to little pieces of metal or tags; this term appears to be English in origin.
Paillon – a term used in metalsmithing- “another name for a solder snippet or small piece of sheet metal used decoratively” – Untracht, Oppi; Metal Techniques for Craftsmen- 1968
Paillette- a sequin or spangle sewn onto a piece of clothing- a term we use currently to denote the small round sequins sewn to the cloth ground. (French)
Tremolo- the Italian term for the hanging type of spangle (makes perfect sense as the hanging type would move or “tremble” thus adding to the sparkling or glittering effect especially in candle light). M. Channing Linthicum; Oes, R.E.S. Vol 7 1931 (No 26 April) Oxford Journals
In his essay “Oes”, Linthicum discusses the misleading lumping together of the descriptions of these two very different decorative elements. “Oes were metal eyelets tacked or clinched to the material in such designs as “squares”, “Esses”, ‘wheatears” etc or powdered over the whole surface. They could hardly be designated spangles since they occur in accounts usually with spangles” He defines spangles as “thin leaves of gold or other metal usually attached by the top and hanging free so that they trembled at every movement of the wearer.”
Ohhh sparklies!!! Not only does the gilt silk and the oes or paillettes but the spangles sparkle too! (The examples we have seen are pretty well oxidized/ tarnished)
So thinking I now knew what I was looking for I plodded ahead and ran straight into a wall.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Okay, Jill, you caught us.
If you use English Midlands bobbins then collecting bobbins can easily be another hobby. (I maintain I have two hobbies — collecting bobbins and making lace. Sometimes they coincide. Rather like collecting patterns and stitching. 
)
The ’spangles’ on bobbins are used on an English style of bobbin usually referred to as Midlands bobbins. (This is due to the fact that they are used for laces that originated in the Midlands of Englands; Buckinghamshire Point (or Bucks Point) is a good example.) Not all English bobbins use spangles; Honiton bobbins are English and are small, straight and pointed and used for a completely different type of lace. Midlands bobbins would have come into use after the time period of the jacket, so it’s possible that their spangle was even named for the spangles used in needlework — who knows! (I’d have to go reading more books to check; Success to the Lace Pillow might say more.)
The spangle on a bobbin serves two purposes. It adds weight to the bobbin, which is straight and fairly lightweight. Continental bobbins achieve this by having some sort of bulb shape at the end. This tends to vary by country/type of lace, with a lace traditionally worked with a heavier thread having a greater weight to the bobbin. Lighter threads, or laces needing more bobbins tend to have narrower/lighter bobbins. (To confuse the whole issue, honiton bobbins don’t have much weight — they are worked on a pillow that is almost ball shaped and rely on gravity for tension. They must be small because they are frequently passed through loops of the lace known as sewings. This technique isn’t limited to honiton lace however.)
The spangle also has a second function. It keeps the bobbin from rolling on the pillow. If you roll the bobbin one way, you better be rolling it back again the other way or eventually you’ll overtwist or completely untwist your thread. I’m sure this becomes natural in working some laces as you get used to the bobbins. (Or, if you’re like me, you suddenly realize you have no twist on your thread, have your threads break, and vow never to use those bobbins again! Thus you work exclusively with midlands and can only find 4 pairs of dutch bobbins when you want to work you lace sample, even though you had at least 18 pairs at one point. Oops. Must go digging for some bobbins that will play nice with the metallic thread tonight. But I digress.)
Anyway, that’s probably a lot more than you wanted to know about what bobbin spangles do and bobbin collecting. (Collecting has been around for a long while. Antiques can be found with names on them or events. Some even commemorate hangings! I’ll admit I have bobbins I bought 10 years ago that still aren’t spangled, which is why I buy them spangled now if I can. :))
Robbin
February 9th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Hi, English lacemaker and bobbin/bead addict her!
Regarding spangles for bobbins I thought you may be interested in the following which is taken from a book called “lace and lacemaking” by Alice-May Bullock published in 1981. She says that the beads of the spangle were specially designed and used only for lace making bobbins. They were small and square, usually white or red in colour, although shades of green, blue and amber were occasionally used. They were threaded on brass wire.
The beads were made by melting a stick of glass and pressing the sides with a file while hot. This roughened the sides and “squared” the bead. The beads were traditionally called square cuts. The mark of the file could clearly be seen on authentic beads. There were normally 9 beads on the spangle, four square cuts on each side and a large venetian bead on the bottom. Quite often the bottom bead was replaced with buttons, coins or lucky charms.
Congratulations on your excellent blog wish I could be there to help but promise I will visit again soon!!
Regards
Pauline