Both Robbin and Wendy answered my call for more information on spangles on bobbins. See Robbin’s comment on yesterday’s post. Wendy emailed me with pictures; her note is below.

Jill,
I have attached two photos for the “Spangles” discussion.
They show lace bobbins from my collection ( I have been collecting tools for over 25 years) with 2 spangles that Mark made! I thought it would help to give a sense of scale.

The book Lace and Bobbins by T. L. Huetson first published in the USA in 1973 has several chapters devoted to the lace bobbin – the definition given in the book is as follows:

“ The purpose of these spangles was threefold: they added a little extra weight to the bobbins so that as they hung down on the pillow the thread had a little tension; bobbins not being used at a particular moment were pushed away to either side of the pillow and the spangle prevented them from rolling back and getting in the way of the other bobbins the worker was using; and they helped the bobbins to grip in the spool of the bobbin winder when they were being wound with thread”

In the world of bobbin collecting there are a wide variety of types and styles – some of which are; wooden, bone, carved, inlaid, bead inlaid, church window and inscribed. Inscriptions include names, engagements, sentiments and executions. Bobbins with certain types of spangles are highly sought after. An example would be a bobbin with a “Kitty Fisher”, a grey colored bead with white dots that have blue centers thought to resemble the eyes of the famous actress. The large bead in the center of the circle of beads is sometimes referred to as a “pompadour”. The square cut beads on either side of the center bead are often “square cut”, they help to prevent the bobbin from moving about when not being used.

Hope this helps!

Wendy

Thanks to both for helping a great deal.

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.

samples received: Lisa G (embroidery); Susan L (lace)

One thing that touches me every time is how grateful the stitchers are to be involved in the recreation of this jacket. It amazes me, because I feel so grateful to all of you – after all, if you didn’t show up, on the blog, in person, by buying kits, by contributing your knowledge and experience, by stitching, well, I don’t even like to think about it.

I need to thank the members of Team Lace for their hard work developing the lace kits that are winging their way all over creation these days. (So many in fact that Kathy asked Tricia to put together another dozen!)

First, a huge debt of gratitude to Carolyn H, who spearheaded the whole endeavor. Without her energy and commitment, the lace would be nowhere.

Holly van Sciver of Van Sciver Bobbin Lace for consulting for development of the lace sample kit, and especially making the final pricking for both the kit lace and the Laton lace (the one we’ll use on the jacket).

Shirley E — working on a final version of the pricking
Robbin D, Catherine K — beta testing the instructions and pricking
Tamara D, Devon T, Susan L — helping out with identifying period appropriate techniques, and especially with working diagrams.

The last two posts have sparked more thanks. This from Robbin:

A large part of the thanks (to the Mayflower Sampler Guild for the donation to support the sampler conservation) goes to the designers over the years who have given us designs for Christmas ornaments. These have been turned into limited edition kits that we’ve sold to raise the conservation funds. So thanks also go to the designers who have given us designs over the years — Martina Webber (Chatelaine), Ellen Chester (With My Needle), Rae Iverson (Moss Creek Designs), Lauren Sauer (Forget Me Not in Stitches) and Catherine Theron (Theron Traditions), along with Linda Connors, our outgoing program chair who arranged for so many wonderful donations.

And from Jen:

I have to agree that Wendy is awesome. She is humor, wit, mischievious devil and guardian angel all in one. One of the many blessings of working on the jacket project is meeting the other fabulous and generous folks pushing and pulling it into existence.

Well put.

Here are answers to Robbin and Linda’s questions from the comments. This new blog program has the capability for us to create and post pages that can be linked to, which will give Rich and me the ability to put up a page with, say, a standard write-up of the Textile Conservation Fund, plus a couple of Karin-approved pictures (I’ll ask her for those next week, Robbin). Then anyone could download that to share with guilds or local needlework shops or what have you. In the mean time, check out the blog entry for November 14, 2007 titled “Ta-Da!”

Which brings me to more gratitude. I was able to find that entry in about 30 seconds flat, thanks to Lyn from Ontario, Canada. Lyn has undertaken an extraordinary job in service to the cause – she’s indexed the entire blog. Last October she brought me a binder with the first 5 months of the blog printed out on numbered pages (sounds obvious, but isn’t) with an INDEX of topics. To see our work all put together like that, looking like an accomplishment, and with the gift of time Lyn had lavished on organizing my chatter, well, I was just overwhelmed. I nearly blogged about it several times, but it was such a special treat, I didn’t have the words.

Yesterday I found a box in my office with an updated index. Lyn’s note said “I thought 250 days was a good time for an update of the indexed blog text.” 250 days. I hadn’t thought of our odyssey in those terms. Anyway, when I wanted to know where the textile fund announcement was, I merely flipped to the index and then right to the page. This index is helping immeasurably as I manually recategorize the old entries and add tags. I still don’t really have the words, but being able to see the blog in a concrete, whole form like this is more than a gift of a time-saver. It’s sort of a gift of encouragement.

Here are two pictures of Lyn, one of her skilled hands working as she has done more than one session already (and planning at least another trip as soon as the SNOW is gone) and another of her looking over a project with Sharon. I didn’t get many pictures of Lyn because she was always at the frame.

So, thanks. Thanks to all of you, for giving me a reason to keep writing.