To find out what Dan and Lara found whilst mudlarking and get 50% off your first 3 months of History Hit, be sure to use this link and enter code VBIRCHWOOD at checkout: access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/purchase?code=vbirchwood&plan=monthly Thank you so much to History Hit for sponsoring this video!
I recall that at some point girls had to go to lace making school to learn lace making during the Victorian/Edwardian eras. I imagine that it was common for them to learn some basic literacy as well.
@@MissingRaptor Yes, it was definitely common for girls to receive at least a basic education (reading, writing, etc.) at public schools by the late 19th century. I was referring to the part of the video, however, that discussed the spread of lacemaking through books in the 16th and 17th century, a time period when literacy was less common.
Elena seems like a person who could talk about what she loves for hours, and I could listen to her for said hours. It's fascinating that needle lace evolved from embroidery, as a resource saving technique. I absolutely loved this video, as much as I love wearing lace ❤
@@VBirchwood In fact it was quite a nice surprise, because earlier I thought about mending my lace dress and there you are with amazing video about lace ❤
@@maryseman7019 - It sounds like "tatting". The shuttle my mother used was made of metal, about 3-1/2 inches long, shaped a bit like an elongated football, with a bobbin that would pop out of the middle where the thread was wound. On the end of the shuttle, there's a hook.
I'm surprised that knitted lace was not covered. Shetland lace is beautiful and struggling to be passed on to younger generations. Queen Victoria started the interest in it originally.
My great grandmother used to make a bit of extra household income from supplying knitted lace to the local haberdashery. Apparently she didn't refer to any patterns, she'd learned them and kept all the information in her head, so she could produce yards and yards of it.
@@craftinghome My Aunt makes knitted baby blankets, kitchen washcloths and hand towel sets, and other stuff for the annual church auction fund raiser. A lot of times, she just makes it up as she goes along. I bet your great grandmother did some of that too.
There are also traditional knitted Orenburg lace shawls made out of goat down. A full size one, which I guess is about 1*1 meter in size, is so thin and delicate it can be pulled through a wedding band
I find it heartbreaking as a Flemish spinner and crafter that we had such highstanding textile industry, both our lace industry and wool industry, that also produced super luxurious cloth sold all over the world, and now it is practically non-existent. Lace is made as a tourist trap in Brussels and Bruges mostly now...
Is anyone familiar with the term Flemish Fingertip Lace? A grandmother born at the turn of the century in now Belgium, would not teach it to my friend, her granddaughter. Her rationale was very personal. If you don’t know it, you’ll never be able to earn a living by it. I’ve searched Fingertip Lace and have never found the term. My friend was born in Belgium during WWII.
I had the privilege of attending a demonstration of bobbin kace making by an elder Flemish woman who Saud that she learned the craft from her family's servant and had to practice on the sly as her mother thought this activity was not for well-off girls from good families.
My great aunt who was born in Belgium and emigrated to Canada could make lovely bobbin lace. I always wanted to learn how to do it from her but never found the time and I really regret it.
My grandmother was going to teach me bobbin lace making, but we didn't find time to do it. It's still on my list to learn and I still have some very old supplies from my grandmother ❤
Absolutely fascinating. Of particular interest to me was the economic effect on women, positive & negative. Convents were a perfect example of both...a huge number of women were incarcerated in convents for lack of sufficient marriage dowry, but without that available option...tragic.
Sorry I'm late for the party, youtube failed to notify me and I was off on my weeks. However I did get a lot out of this video! Elena is such a wealth of knowledge. My danish great grandmother used to do some amazing needle lace. After this video it makes so much more sense now about the story that her family sold lace to pay for their passage to America right around the time she was born in the late 1890's. She taught her daughter and tried to teach her granddaughters as well, but they never had any desire to do anything with it. There were other things that are now considered crafts that she tried to teach them they they had no intrest in either. By that time, the world had changed and didn't appreciate things like lace as it did back in my great grandmother's day. She used to knit and crochet too but today we only have a few throw blankets that she made that survive. At the time they were customers made knock offs of what was popular at the time that she could still make with her arthritic hands. Sadly she didn't live long enough to teach me anything. She tried to teach my mom to knit and crochet but my mom never had any intrest. It saddens me to think of all that was lost to history not only with the passing of my great grandmother but all the unnamed women throughout history who had this unique skill that was such a big part of history at one time. However, it's also good to see that people are striving to bring the quality handmade items back. I guess you could say that it's sort of a renaissance of these skills if you will. Than you so much for having these 500 years videos. They have been so informative!
Same here, in a way. My paternal grandmother knew how to spin wool, and I would have been thrilled to learn! I'm sure she would have been doubly thrilled to show me, but my mother did not even want me to ask my grandmother. She didn't want me to "bother" her. I still regret this opportunity passed by both my grandmother and myself.
Usually I have videos like this on in the background while I'm doing something else, but there was so much incredible information that I had to give it my full attention! I love Elena's work and it was incredible to hear her speak in so much detail
I love that Elena shared quotes from a disabled nun. Being disabled myself, I knew a bit about this myself but I loved hearing someone who was abled to talk the practice of aristocrats sending disabled women to convents and this was cruel; it was much kinder than some of the alternatives, but it was still a cruel practice. Before I was born, my mom had the opportunity in Germany to watch some Bamberg (where I was born) tatters tatt some lace. She never saw hands move so fast! My great-aunts could tatt and bobbin lace; I'm sad this wasn't passed down to any of us girls.
As someone who's been making lace regularly since at least 2001, I'm so sorry that she had difficulty finding the various websites that shared techniques and patterns back then. I know when I first tried to learn tatting (around 1998-ish), it was very difficult to find anything online at first (and all I had to learn were some.... rather poor illustrations). Within a couple of years, I had found several forums and email lists of tatters and other lace-makers who helped me figure out what I was doing wrong. And LOTS of videos, which were invaluable! By 2004, at least, websites with patterns were starting to pick up and be found by search engines even if you weren't a member of the forums. I still need to find a few extra hours/weeks/years to learn ALL THE TECHNIQUES! lol - 'Til then, I'll just have to enjoy my tatting, knitting, & occasional crochet.
I learned to tat in the mid-80's, but was taught by a friend. There was an American magazine called "The Workbasket" published starting in the 1930's that had tatting patterns. It's now available on line in one of the pattern archives. I have some of my great-grandmother's tatting, made from thread almost as fine as sewing thread. I aspire to manage that.
Fascinating. There are certain crafts/livelihoods that have a level of commitment and intricacy that deserve more recognition, lace making, dry stone walling, miniature painting to name but a few. Tying my own laces is a mental stretch for me some mornings 🤔
Excellent interview and a very knowledgeable guest! I know that there's no way to even briefly mention every technique in an hour long lecture, but I'd like to give a shout out to knitted lace. The famous Shetland 'ring' shawls are on my 'bucket list' goals as a knitter.
The variety of books over at Internet Archive is so good. I'm spending more time with at least a couple of them. Thanks for this video. I really enjoyed seeing the different types of lace and hearing about materials.
Awesome educational video! Thank you. I'm one of those weird people who likes knitting lace more than pretty much any other kind of knitting. I love using size 0, 00, or 000 needles and crochet thread to create elaborate lace doilies. One of my grandmothers used to crochet doilies. Not many people use them these days. I love seeing how people use lace in clothing, though. 😊
That was fascinating! I don't know much at all about lace, and it's wonderful to hear her talk so passionately about it. The steam train lace at 43:40 is SO COOL!!! I also really love the little Paraguayan needle lace circles. The Met has some handkerchiefs made with those, and they're just delightful.
I never knew I could watch an hour long video about lace ! Really cool interesting history and beautiful stunning designs. I always wondered about the beautiful lace worn by Elizabeth 1.
Let me tell you this was amazing! The length intimidated me but time flew by so fast! I actually already knew Elena and followed her on insta after i discovered her work for "Threads of Power" in my reels so this collab took me by extremely pleasant suprise.
Really glad you enjoyed the video! I debated on releasing such a long video, but had the same feeling that Elena’s words were so riveting that people simply had to hear the entire presentation. Each section carries such a plethora of knowledge.
I have longed for this Lace History Lesson for 40 years. I will be watching this again and sending it to the ladies in my Antiques Club. ❤😂🎉. She speaks so well! 👏🏻🤍
Thank you so much for this interesting video and making clear to me that I can also do bobbin lace. I grew up in a region in Germany, that is also quite known for Bobbin lace, passementerie and wooden Christmas decorations. I began doing it at the age of 6 in primary school and was in an after school club that taught it. There would be three adults who watched over little girls all doing our bobbin lace. Now that I think about it I did soooo many things and I can still do it, even the sing sang to remember the various patterns in which you can make the lace. I never thought of it as special, just some culture thing which I stopped once I went to secondary school. Now that I know that I'll have to ask my mother where my pillow and my pillow stand went, buy some thread and make my own lace I never found on the internet. Thank you so much!
I loved this video. Years ago I found a book on lacemaking history in a friend’s library. I was fascinated and I couldn’t put the book down. Later on, when I returned home, I found that the lady I had been visiting sent me the book as a present. I have done tatted lace and crochet lace. I haven’t tried bobbin lace because it seems beyond my abilities.
What an intriguing & impressive insight into the Lace making history. How sad that parents sent their daughters away to Convents because of the custom of paying dowries for their daughter’s wedding. And to learn that orphanages were owned as a Lace making business!! Thank you Elena! Your passion & extensive knowledge is impressive! It’s nice to know you are much appreciated by the Academic Society!! Bravo to you!! What a beautiful field to study!!
as a belgian who had most of his ancestors being weavers and spinners around the kortrijk's region and even a set of great great grandmothers who were lacemakers from antwerp, and as a hobbyist who's become obsessed in linen goods and historical textiles (the movement and drape of most historical textiles was exquisite and it's probably why most reenactors' dress tend to look bland imo) it saddens me to realise that the skills i really want to learn about would have be common less than 200 years ago. I guess i wouldn't want their lives and the price to pay for this knowledge would have been being forced into this trade at a time when it would be not a secure one, but i guess i found what subject i could focus on in my craft and research going forwards. Sucks that i couldn't make those super transluscent flemish linen veils seen in 16th century portraiture
@Gabriel Hanssens - I saw a video not long ago about various olden arts. It mentioned the fine linen that was made long past and how there is currently a group of people in India who are trying to revive the flax variety used and to revive the techniques of spinning and weaving with it. It may be a while before this is again re-established (if ever) and will probably be very expensive, but it could be coming in your future.
I've watched a video about history of lace made in Croatia. One region used agave plant threads for it, and the threads looked way thinner than the ones made of cotton (or linen?).
Who knew I would spend an hour listening to lace talk?! A couple types of lace I did not hear her talk about (or perhaps missed) was knitted lace and 'tape-lace' like Battenburg (and perhaps faggoting of ribbon). I had never heard of 'lace' being called 'tatting' - but vice-versa (I'm from the southwest US). I learned to tat at 14 from my grandmother and crochet & knit before 10 y/o (back in the '60s) from my mom. I tatted booties, sweaters and caps for my infant when I was very young; Mom gave me a couple books on the subject. She loved needle work and was notorious for using cotton sewing thread to crochet laces for her china-head dolls, a hankie edge for her grandmother (who loved laces). The one thing she never learned, and lamented about, was bobbin lace - think I will have to take it up in her honor. 😉 So enjoyed this video - will save and watch again! Thank you.
When I was at the Victoria and Albert Museum I pulled out drawers of lace but I had to stop because I was swept with a very strange feeling that these represented so much work and distress of the individuals who made them.
I would love to introduce you to the lacemakers in Offida, Italy, who are my friends. Their traditions go back centuries, and the lace is still made today using the patterns from that time period!
This has been the best hour I’ve spent on UA-cam in a while! Thank you for this very educational video. I love history & textiles so this was a beautiful combination of those 2 loves ❤. I hope to see more from your channel soon & your expert, Elena, was excellent in instruction as well as in storytelling that brings history to life.
Lacemaking was a cash product which was rare in the 'lower classes'. Same with those who plaited straw for hats. Or girls who could make rugs in Persia .Or the production knitters. It made those skilled more valuable.
Yaay! How exciting! This video has been great fun to watch! Last year I visited St Galen to see the Textile museum, and saw the hand-cranked embroidery machine (and the little old lady who runs it!), it was fascinating! Unfortunately missed your beautiful red lace piece - the museum was between exhibits at the time. The second large lace machine shown in the video here, the one with the small metal bobbins (shuttle bobbins, like in some of the old shuttle-bobbin sewing machines), was (with other machines and lace examples - this was a better museum, IMO, and the fella at the desk was super nice and informative!) at the Saurer Museum, in Arbon, Switzerland, directly on the shore of the Bodensee. It is a cool museum with both awesome old textiles machines, AND old-timey Swiss vehicles! It is set up in the old-style - which means that there are plenty of wonderful smells (oils and machines!) and lots to see! No minimalism boring "modern" museum set up! There is also a little cafe in the building, and it's just a really nice place to go. The floor is tiled with wood blocks, and makes a satisfying noise when walked upon. I hope this museum never changes.
My college roommate had learned tatting from her grandmother. I don’t know the difference between tatting and lace making but what she did involved bobbins. I inherited a trove of lace from my grandmother, great aunt and great grandmother. The family was wealthy enough to travel to Europe some. I think some of the lace was bought over there. There is one piece that has a fabulous Pan playing his pipes. Most of the lace had been used then salvaged for further use. I used some of the lace to make a lovely christening gown that I dressed 2 of my children in for their baptisms. I wanted to use some of the family lace for the new generation. It doesn’t look like there will be any further generations but I still love how the christening gown turned out and live the connection through the ages. This was very interesting. I am a long time embroiderer myself.
I’m loving the 500 years of history, so glad you have done this subject I just love lace, I have been teaching myself on lace making, at the moment I am working my crochet lace which is a design I made, unlike needle & bobbing lace, I have to follow the rules of crochet but I love the challenge. I have tried tatting but for some reason my fingers turn into all thumbs 😹😹😹and my brain hates it but I love some of the works from tatting, it’s just I’m not able to get my head and hands to work together to make anything in the tatting method 😹😹 when I found crochet lace well I hit the ground running and been loving it since I found it a year ago all because I was looking for lace for a gown I have designed. I found I had to learn how to make my own lace as I just could not find anything I like in a my budget and also made from natural fibers. I found plenty of acrylic, polyester and nylon lace perfect in design but I am making my new clothes from only natural fibers as the man made ones just keeps getting me zapped every time I go to get things of the supermarket shelf or push the buttons for the elevator 😹😹opening doors with metal handles and at the age of 60 and 8 days🙀😹😹 I’m just fed up with it😹😹 I will have to look into some of those online lessons for lace making I just love learning new talents to add to my growing list of skills.
What a wonderful interview! There’s so much to learn. I need more time! I have always been fascinated by cut work and lace making. I’m hoping to someday have a go at learning. Thank you for a wonderful interview though you might need to have her back. I have a feeling we only skimmed the edges of the topic. Maybe sub-topics for all the different kinds of lace.
i was crocheting while watching this video, it was super eye opening because it highlights women's work through history. Some textile and fiber arts might be seen as a hobby nowadays but back then it was a full time job.
Twining linen thread can produce a much finer thread. I sometimes buy stricks of long-line flax from the Netherlands and Egypt, and you can get thread that is only a few fibers thick.
Fascinating to see how many different styles of lace there were and still are! Thank you for sharing your expertise, Elena, and thank you for giving this room on your platform, Varsi! Another craft I would like to do and don't know how to find the time for :D
Thank you both for making this video. I enjoy dabbling in Punto en Aria and wanted to know more about the history. Am so grateful for the additional resources and information. Again thank you!
What a magnificent breadth of knowledge Elena has! The whistle-stop tour of European laces and lacemaking brought together most of the bits and pieces that I know about lace, but Elena obviously knows much more than she could cram into one video interview; Id love to spend a week with her because she's considered and is knowledgeable about so many aspects of this subject... A wonderful choice of guest, V., thank you!
It’s so nice to have a person like Elena speak about lace - she makes a subject which could potentially be boring coming from someone who doesn’t have the same passion for lace. She’s very interesting, knowledgeable and talented. Queen Victoria’s youngest child Princess Beatrice was a collector of historic laces and is said to have owned a piece of fabric from a gown of Catherine of Aragon.
Absolutely riveting, and has really helped me to understand a little more about lace types. Love the mention of the fishing nets. Am going to have to listen to this over and over again. Great sponsor for this too!
What a wealth of knowledge Elena has. Such a great teacher ! And Vasi, from the side profile position, you look like that painting. I forget who it's by. You know what I'm talking about, right ?
When I was a child I wore lace to my aunt's wedding, I remember feeling like I could have lived during the height of the lace making industry. It made me feel like a princess. Lace tells a story, it has a deeply imbedded history. Ive been doing embroidery work, since I was three when I was taught by my great grandmother and grandmother for 40 years, now I have advanced into tapestry and thread painting work, some of the stitches are the same in lace and it's beautiful when the different forms of thread art can come together 😊 Wonderful lesson, beautiful history and ty for keeping lacemaking alive. 😊
So, I'm watching this a second time a year later. This was the video that kickstarted my dive into lacemaking, falling in love with the punto in aria at first sight. I went first into crochet, then into knitting, and now *finally* I'm on day four or five of learning punto in aria. It took a whole year to get here, and this video comes back across my feed to remind me where I got started 💜
The timing couldn't be more perfect. I went to an exhibition about Irish fabrics and historical fabrics. And an irish lace maker was one of the exhibitionist and I have to say hand made lace in pictures vs irl lace is incomparable. The detail was incredible.
My great-great grandma, great grandma, grandma, mom, and me crochet/crocheted. It is believed that my great-great grandma learned to crochet by watching her mom. Growing up I was only taught how to chain and “add on”, which I later learned was single crochet. During covid I really focused on and taught myself the stitches and how to crochet various things. At the moment I’m the only one in my family who still crochets.
I’m a Navajo weaver and I see that the bobbin lacing weaves are similar as I weave designs into a tapestry and bobbin lacing you are the designs into a shape. Right now I’m teaching myself about bobbin lacing.
I am from Czech and learned lacemaking when I was 13 :) .. still have bobbins and sometimes make some samples ...so nice to hear the history in such detail :)
I love the concentrated info. I saw someone do bobbin lace at a local textile exhibition. This is a lost art and not appreciated. Grandmas' lace veil is just netting to them. Thanks for bringing this to the general public!
I absolutely loved this interview and I'm so in love with lace fabric and lace making! This was fascinating and so was Elena and her wonderfully informative presentation. I'm following you both now!!! Thanks for sharing 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Wonderful video- I will watch this again and take notes! I’ve studied textiles and textile arts for years and still found new information in this video! Many thanks!
Yeah I could listen to this young lady talk forever!! Very interesting topic but she’s very knowledgeable and at the same time does also let’s you know when she’s not sure about something. She also makes you want you to investigate the topic. At least that’s how I felt. I would pay to hear a lecture by her.
A great video 😍 I really enjoyed the interview. But because I'm not the biggest fan of crochet lace and bobbin lace is just to difficoult for me, I learned tatting lace (frivolité). I use this lace for the most of my handmade.
I love seeing this. I was just telling someone today about the immense emotional connection people have with tatting. While it’s never been in vogue on the scale of crochet or knitting, when I was teaching, i had people who were passionately attached to inherited pieces that was never replicated with knitted or crocheted pieces. I would have people come to the classes with bits made by an ancestor saying they wanted to learn to tat, even when they’d never done any needlework before. I just love lace of every kind!
To find out what Dan and Lara found whilst mudlarking and get 50% off your first 3 months of History Hit, be sure to use this link and enter code VBIRCHWOOD at checkout: access.historyhit.com/checkout/subscribe/purchase?code=vbirchwood&plan=monthly
Thank you so much to History Hit for sponsoring this video!
I find it fascinating that lacemaking was spread through books, since it implies a fairly high level of female literacy among the working class.
Very true!
I recall that at some point girls had to go to lace making school to learn lace making during the Victorian/Edwardian eras. I imagine that it was common for them to learn some basic literacy as well.
@@MissingRaptor Yes, it was definitely common for girls to receive at least a basic education (reading, writing, etc.) at public schools by the late 19th century. I was referring to the part of the video, however, that discussed the spread of lacemaking through books in the 16th and 17th century, a time period when literacy was less common.
@@kirstenpaff8946 i imagine there be also a few learning from the book and then teaching it to others in the community.
@@MissingRaptortd
Oh what a tangled weave we weave when first we weave lace
Elena seems like a person who could talk about what she loves for hours, and I could listen to her for said hours. It's fascinating that needle lace evolved from embroidery, as a resource saving technique. I absolutely loved this video, as much as I love wearing lace ❤
So glad you loved the video! ❤️
@@VBirchwood In fact it was quite a nice surprise, because earlier I thought about mending my lace dress and there you are with amazing video about lace ❤
I think she's the top ambassador that we have for lace. She's a powerhouse and deep, besides being incredibly talented at the artwork.
@@VBirchwood My grandma taught me to shuttle tat. What kind of lace is that?
@@maryseman7019 - It sounds like "tatting". The shuttle my mother used was made of metal, about 3-1/2 inches long, shaped a bit like an elongated football, with a bobbin that would pop out of the middle where the thread was wound. On the end of the shuttle, there's a hook.
I'm surprised that knitted lace was not covered. Shetland lace is beautiful and struggling to be passed on to younger generations. Queen Victoria started the interest in it originally.
My great grandmother used to make a bit of extra household income from supplying knitted lace to the local haberdashery. Apparently she didn't refer to any patterns, she'd learned them and kept all the information in her head, so she could produce yards and yards of it.
@@craftinghome My Aunt makes knitted baby blankets, kitchen washcloths and hand towel sets, and other stuff for the annual church auction fund raiser. A lot of times, she just makes it up as she goes along. I bet your great grandmother did some of that too.
There are also traditional knitted Orenburg lace shawls made out of goat down. A full size one, which I guess is about 1*1 meter in size, is so thin and delicate it can be pulled through a wedding band
I find it heartbreaking as a Flemish spinner and crafter that we had such highstanding textile industry, both our lace industry and wool industry, that also produced super luxurious cloth sold all over the world, and now it is practically non-existent. Lace is made as a tourist trap in Brussels and Bruges mostly now...
It’s definitely extremely heartbreaking. I hope efforts for it to be revived continue.
Is anyone familiar with the term Flemish Fingertip Lace? A grandmother born at the turn of the century in now Belgium, would not teach it to my friend, her granddaughter. Her rationale was very personal. If you don’t know it, you’ll never be able to earn a living by it. I’ve searched Fingertip Lace and have never found the term. My friend was born in Belgium during WWII.
I had the privilege of attending a demonstration of bobbin kace making by an elder Flemish woman who Saud that she learned the craft from her family's servant and had to practice on the sly as her mother thought this activity was not for well-off girls from good families.
My great aunt who was born in Belgium and emigrated to Canada could make lovely bobbin lace. I always wanted to learn how to do it from her but never found the time and I really regret it.
My grandmother was going to teach me bobbin lace making, but we didn't find time to do it. It's still on my list to learn and I still have some very old supplies from my grandmother ❤
Her enthusiasm is contagious!
I did not think I'd spend an hour learning about lace, but this was really cool
A pleasant surprise! 🥰
Absolutely fascinating. Of particular interest to me was the economic effect on women, positive & negative. Convents were a perfect example of both...a huge number of women were incarcerated in convents for lack of sufficient marriage dowry, but without that available option...tragic.
Sorry I'm late for the party, youtube failed to notify me and I was off on my weeks. However I did get a lot out of this video! Elena is such a wealth of knowledge. My danish great grandmother used to do some amazing needle lace. After this video it makes so much more sense now about the story that her family sold lace to pay for their passage to America right around the time she was born in the late 1890's. She taught her daughter and tried to teach her granddaughters as well, but they never had any desire to do anything with it. There were other things that are now considered crafts that she tried to teach them they they had no intrest in either. By that time, the world had changed and didn't appreciate things like lace as it did back in my great grandmother's day. She used to knit and crochet too but today we only have a few throw blankets that she made that survive. At the time they were customers made knock offs of what was popular at the time that she could still make with her arthritic hands. Sadly she didn't live long enough to teach me anything. She tried to teach my mom to knit and crochet but my mom never had any intrest. It saddens me to think of all that was lost to history not only with the passing of my great grandmother but all the unnamed women throughout history who had this unique skill that was such a big part of history at one time. However, it's also good to see that people are striving to bring the quality handmade items back. I guess you could say that it's sort of a renaissance of these skills if you will. Than you so much for having these 500 years videos. They have been so informative!
Same here, in a way. My paternal grandmother knew how to spin wool, and I would have been thrilled to learn! I'm sure she would have been doubly thrilled to show me, but my mother did not even want me to ask my grandmother. She didn't want me to "bother" her. I still regret this opportunity passed by both my grandmother and myself.
Usually I have videos like this on in the background while I'm doing something else, but there was so much incredible information that I had to give it my full attention! I love Elena's work and it was incredible to hear her speak in so much detail
So glad you enjoyed it Ash! I felt really captivated by everything Elena was saying too and had hoped others would feel the same! ❤️
I love that Elena shared quotes from a disabled nun. Being disabled myself, I knew a bit about this myself but I loved hearing someone who was abled to talk the practice of aristocrats sending disabled women to convents and this was cruel; it was much kinder than some of the alternatives, but it was still a cruel practice.
Before I was born, my mom had the opportunity in Germany to watch some Bamberg (where I was born) tatters tatt some lace. She never saw hands move so fast! My great-aunts could tatt and bobbin lace; I'm sad this wasn't passed down to any of us girls.
As someone who's been making lace regularly since at least 2001, I'm so sorry that she had difficulty finding the various websites that shared techniques and patterns back then. I know when I first tried to learn tatting (around 1998-ish), it was very difficult to find anything online at first (and all I had to learn were some.... rather poor illustrations). Within a couple of years, I had found several forums and email lists of tatters and other lace-makers who helped me figure out what I was doing wrong. And LOTS of videos, which were invaluable! By 2004, at least, websites with patterns were starting to pick up and be found by search engines even if you weren't a member of the forums. I still need to find a few extra hours/weeks/years to learn ALL THE TECHNIQUES! lol - 'Til then, I'll just have to enjoy my tatting, knitting, & occasional crochet.
I learned to tat in the mid-80's, but was taught by a friend. There was an American magazine called "The Workbasket" published starting in the 1930's that had tatting patterns. It's now available on line in one of the pattern archives. I have some of my great-grandmother's tatting, made from thread almost as fine as sewing thread. I aspire to manage that.
Fascinating. There are certain crafts/livelihoods that have a level of commitment and intricacy that deserve more recognition, lace making, dry stone walling, miniature painting to name but a few. Tying my own laces is a mental stretch for me some mornings 🤔
@Iain Mc - I know exactly what you mean!
Excellent interview and a very knowledgeable guest! I know that there's no way to even briefly mention every technique in an hour long lecture, but I'd like to give a shout out to knitted lace. The famous Shetland 'ring' shawls are on my 'bucket list' goals as a knitter.
The variety of books over at Internet Archive is so good. I'm spending more time with at least a couple of them. Thanks for this video. I really enjoyed seeing the different types of lace and hearing about materials.
The variety is really amazing over there, so many priceless resources! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Awesome educational video! Thank you. I'm one of those weird people who likes knitting lace more than pretty much any other kind of knitting. I love using size 0, 00, or 000 needles and crochet thread to create elaborate lace doilies. One of my grandmothers used to crochet doilies. Not many people use them these days. I love seeing how people use lace in clothing, though. 😊
That was fascinating! I don't know much at all about lace, and it's wonderful to hear her talk so passionately about it.
The steam train lace at 43:40 is SO COOL!!!
I also really love the little Paraguayan needle lace circles. The Met has some handkerchiefs made with those, and they're just delightful.
I agree about the lace steam train! Tenerife lace doesn't do it for me, but tastes vary, and that is fine.
I never knew I could watch an hour long video about lace ! Really cool interesting history and beautiful stunning designs. I always wondered about the beautiful lace worn by Elizabeth 1.
This was very educational. I'd love to learn more about lace traditions outside europe that were mentioned
Let me tell you this was amazing! The length intimidated me but time flew by so fast! I actually already knew Elena and followed her on insta after i discovered her work for "Threads of Power" in my reels so this collab took me by extremely pleasant suprise.
Really glad you enjoyed the video! I debated on releasing such a long video, but had the same feeling that Elena’s words were so riveting that people simply had to hear the entire presentation. Each section carries such a plethora of knowledge.
@@VBirchwood - And you were correct!
I have longed for this Lace History Lesson for 40 years. I will be watching this again and sending it to the ladies in my Antiques Club. ❤😂🎉. She speaks so well! 👏🏻🤍
Thank you so much for this interesting video and making clear to me that I can also do bobbin lace. I grew up in a region in Germany, that is also quite known for Bobbin lace, passementerie and wooden Christmas decorations. I began doing it at the age of 6 in primary school and was in an after school club that taught it. There would be three adults who watched over little girls all doing our bobbin lace. Now that I think about it I did soooo many things and I can still do it, even the sing sang to remember the various patterns in which you can make the lace. I never thought of it as special, just some culture thing which I stopped once I went to secondary school. Now that I know that I'll have to ask my mother where my pillow and my pillow stand went, buy some thread and make my own lace I never found on the internet. Thank you so much!
I loved this video. Years ago I found a book on lacemaking history in a friend’s library. I was fascinated and I couldn’t put the book down. Later on, when I returned home, I found that the lady I had been visiting sent me the book as a present. I have done tatted lace and crochet lace. I haven’t tried bobbin lace because it seems beyond my abilities.
Thanks!
Thanks so much Audri ❤️
I do NOT need another hobby!
I do NOT need another hobby!
I do NOT need another hobby!
But the sounds of the bobbins clacking is so soothing 😂
What an intriguing & impressive insight into the Lace making history. How sad that parents sent their daughters away to Convents because of the custom of paying dowries for their daughter’s wedding. And to learn that orphanages were owned as a Lace making business!! Thank you Elena! Your passion & extensive knowledge is impressive! It’s nice to know you are much appreciated by the Academic Society!! Bravo to you!! What a beautiful field to study!!
What a pleasure to listen to the knowledgeable Ms Kanagy-Loux.
My goodness this is a tour de force… what a wealth of eloquent knowledge. Fantastic use of contemporary images as well. Thank you both 🏴🥃🥃🥃
as a belgian who had most of his ancestors being weavers and spinners around the kortrijk's region and even a set of great great grandmothers who were lacemakers from antwerp, and as a hobbyist who's become obsessed in linen goods and historical textiles (the movement and drape of most historical textiles was exquisite and it's probably why most reenactors' dress tend to look bland imo) it saddens me to realise that the skills i really want to learn about would have be common less than 200 years ago. I guess i wouldn't want their lives and the price to pay for this knowledge would have been being forced into this trade at a time when it would be not a secure one, but i guess i found what subject i could focus on in my craft and research going forwards. Sucks that i couldn't make those super transluscent flemish linen veils seen in 16th century portraiture
For those finest veils you need spinners who can make the thread to make the lace from.
@Gabriel Hanssens - I saw a video not long ago about various olden arts. It mentioned the fine linen that was made long past and how there is currently a group of people in India who are trying to revive the flax variety used and to revive the techniques of spinning and weaving with it. It may be a while before this is again re-established (if ever) and will probably be very expensive, but it could be coming in your future.
I've watched a video about history of lace made in Croatia. One region used agave plant threads for it, and the threads looked way thinner than the ones made of cotton (or linen?).
Who knew I would spend an hour listening to lace talk?! A couple types of lace I did not hear her talk about (or perhaps missed) was knitted lace and 'tape-lace' like Battenburg (and perhaps faggoting of ribbon).
I had never heard of 'lace' being called 'tatting' - but vice-versa (I'm from the southwest US). I learned to tat at 14 from my grandmother and crochet & knit before 10 y/o (back in the '60s) from my mom. I tatted booties, sweaters and caps for my infant when I was very young; Mom gave me a couple books on the subject. She loved needle work and was notorious for using cotton sewing thread to crochet laces for her china-head dolls, a hankie edge for her grandmother (who loved laces). The one thing she never learned, and lamented about, was bobbin lace - think I will have to take it up in her honor. 😉
So enjoyed this video - will save and watch again! Thank you.
I love Elena!!!! So glad you interviewed her.
She's amazing! ❤
This episode was so good. I have followed Elena on Instagram for awhile and it was so interesting to listen to her talking about lace. 😊
Glad you enjoyed it!
Fascinating interview and so well produced! I loved the early examples of lace from the Americas.
Thank you!! It was quite the edit 😅
This was so interesting, thank you! I learned so much.
What an extensive lecture.
Thank you both for putting so much time and effort into this video.
Handmade lace is so awe-inspiring.
Very interesting. I am living in Flanders (dutch speaking part of Belgium). My aunt taught me how to do bobbin lace. (Torchon)
Will definitely think of lace differently now, so interesting to hear about the women who made it centuries ago
Super fascinating, right?
Wonderful video! Informative and interesting, with a charming and talented guest. I love the 500 years of . . . series!!
Glad you enjoyed the video Carolyn! 😊
I am a bobbin lace maker from Denmark and we have a lot of history with it
!!! I'm so excited about this video!! So glad you did this interview:)
Hope you enjoyed it!
What an excellent and valuable video!
Thank you!
When I was at the Victoria and Albert Museum I pulled out drawers of lace but I had to stop because I was swept with a very strange feeling that these represented so much work and distress of the individuals who made them.
I would love to introduce you to the lacemakers in Offida, Italy, who are my friends. Their traditions go back centuries, and the lace is still made today using the patterns from that time period!
This has been the best hour I’ve spent on UA-cam in a while! Thank you for this very educational video. I love history & textiles so this was a beautiful combination of those 2 loves ❤. I hope to see more from your channel soon & your expert, Elena, was excellent in instruction as well as in storytelling that brings history to life.
I love this so much. I just started taking bobbin lace classes. My love and admiration for lace and the craftsmanship have grown so much.
This is so fascinating!!! I love the addition of experts to your own wonderful style!
Fascinating! Thank you!
Makes me want to get my bobbin lace pillow out again and start back!
Lacemaking was a cash product which was rare in the 'lower classes'. Same with those who plaited straw for hats. Or girls who could make rugs in Persia .Or the production knitters. It made those skilled more valuable.
Yaay! How exciting! This video has been great fun to watch! Last year I visited St Galen to see the Textile museum, and saw the hand-cranked embroidery machine (and the little old lady who runs it!), it was fascinating! Unfortunately missed your beautiful red lace piece - the museum was between exhibits at the time. The second large lace machine shown in the video here, the one with the small metal bobbins (shuttle bobbins, like in some of the old shuttle-bobbin sewing machines), was (with other machines and lace examples - this was a better museum, IMO, and the fella at the desk was super nice and informative!) at the Saurer Museum, in Arbon, Switzerland, directly on the shore of the Bodensee. It is a cool museum with both awesome old textiles machines, AND old-timey Swiss vehicles! It is set up in the old-style - which means that there are plenty of wonderful smells (oils and machines!) and lots to see! No minimalism boring "modern" museum set up! There is also a little cafe in the building, and it's just a really nice place to go. The floor is tiled with wood blocks, and makes a satisfying noise when walked upon. I hope this museum never changes.
My college roommate had learned tatting from her grandmother. I don’t know the difference between tatting and lace making but what she did involved bobbins.
I inherited a trove of lace from my grandmother, great aunt and great grandmother.
The family was wealthy enough to travel to Europe some.
I think some of the lace was bought over there.
There is one piece that has a fabulous Pan playing his pipes.
Most of the lace had been used then salvaged for further use.
I used some of the lace to make a lovely christening gown that I dressed 2 of my children in for their baptisms. I wanted to use some of the family lace for the new generation.
It doesn’t look like there will be any further generations but I still love how the christening gown turned out and live the connection through the ages.
This was very interesting. I am a long time embroiderer myself.
I’m loving the 500 years of history, so glad you have done this subject I just love lace, I have been teaching myself on lace making, at the moment I am working my crochet lace which is a design I made, unlike needle & bobbing lace, I have to follow the rules of crochet but I love the challenge.
I have tried tatting but for some reason my fingers turn into all thumbs 😹😹😹and my brain hates it but I love some of the works from tatting, it’s just I’m not able to get my head and hands to work together to make anything in the tatting method 😹😹 when I found crochet lace well I hit the ground running and been loving it since I found it a year ago all because I was looking for lace for a gown I have designed. I found I had to learn how to make my own lace as I just could not find anything I like in a my budget and also made from natural fibers. I found plenty of acrylic, polyester and nylon lace perfect in design but I am making my new clothes from only natural fibers as the man made ones just keeps getting me zapped every time I go to get things of the supermarket shelf or push the buttons for the elevator 😹😹opening doors with metal handles and at the age of 60 and 8 days🙀😹😹 I’m just fed up with it😹😹
I will have to look into some of those online lessons for lace making I just love learning new talents to add to my growing list of skills.
What a wonderful interview! There’s so much to learn. I need more time! I have always been fascinated by cut work and lace making. I’m hoping to someday have a go at learning.
Thank you for a wonderful interview though you might need to have her back. I have a feeling we only skimmed the edges of the topic. Maybe sub-topics for all the different kinds of lace.
I love this wealth of detail information!
i was crocheting while watching this video, it was super eye opening because it highlights women's work through history. Some textile and fiber arts might be seen as a hobby nowadays but back then it was a full time job.
Twining linen thread can produce a much finer thread. I sometimes buy stricks of long-line flax from the Netherlands and Egypt, and you can get thread that is only a few fibers thick.
Fascinating to see how many different styles of lace there were and still are! Thank you for sharing your expertise, Elena, and thank you for giving this room on your platform, Varsi! Another craft I would like to do and don't know how to find the time for :D
Thank you both for making this video. I enjoy dabbling in Punto en Aria and wanted to know more about the history. Am so grateful for the additional resources and information. Again thank you!
What a magnificent breadth of knowledge Elena has! The whistle-stop tour of European laces and lacemaking brought together most of the bits and pieces that I know about lace, but Elena obviously knows much more than she could cram into one video interview; Id love to spend a week with her because she's considered and is knowledgeable about so many aspects of this subject...
A wonderful choice of guest, V., thank you!
It’s so nice to have a person like Elena speak about lace - she makes a subject which could potentially be boring coming from someone who doesn’t have the same passion for lace.
She’s very interesting, knowledgeable and talented.
Queen Victoria’s youngest child Princess Beatrice was a collector of historic laces and is said to have owned a piece of fabric from a gown of Catherine of Aragon.
Absolutely riveting, and has really helped me to understand a little more about lace types. Love the mention of the fishing nets. Am going to have to listen to this over and over again. Great sponsor for this too!
Thanks so much Bella! ❤️
What a wealth of knowledge Elena has. Such a great teacher !
And Vasi, from the side profile position, you look like that painting. I forget who it's by. You know what I'm talking about, right ?
Thank you so much for having this presentation! I’ve finally started learning crochet because I want to make lace 💗🙏🏽🧶
Oh, that was fascinating!
Thank you for having this lady on.
When I was a child I wore lace to my aunt's wedding, I remember feeling like I could have lived during the height of the lace making industry. It made me feel like a princess.
Lace tells a story, it has a deeply imbedded history. Ive been doing embroidery work, since I was three when I was taught by my great grandmother and grandmother for 40 years, now I have advanced into tapestry and thread painting work, some of the stitches are the same in lace and it's beautiful when the different forms of thread art can come together 😊
Wonderful lesson, beautiful history and ty for keeping lacemaking alive. 😊
Love her lace content and overall fashion style.
This was really good...Thanks for sharing it...!!!...I had to save it...!!!
Hope you enjoy watching! 😊
Extremely fascinating! This video got me looking at how different types of lace are made, specifically bobbin, tatting, and needle lace.
Great interview! Thank you for covering this subject and having Ms. Elena Kanagy-Loux as a speaker. 💗🕸💖
So, I'm watching this a second time a year later.
This was the video that kickstarted my dive into lacemaking, falling in love with the punto in aria at first sight. I went first into crochet, then into knitting, and now *finally* I'm on day four or five of learning punto in aria. It took a whole year to get here, and this video comes back across my feed to remind me where I got started 💜
Amazing introduction to lace history. I was so informed & loved the interview. Thank you.
Wow! I love somebody who just geeks out on a topic. Elena is SO knowledgeable! Fascinating!
Incredibly cool video! Now I need to dive down another rabbit hole
The timing couldn't be more perfect. I went to an exhibition about Irish fabrics and historical fabrics. And an irish lace maker was one of the exhibitionist and I have to say hand made lace in pictures vs irl lace is incomparable. The detail was incredible.
My great-great grandma, great grandma, grandma, mom, and me crochet/crocheted. It is believed that my great-great grandma learned to crochet by watching her mom. Growing up I was only taught how to chain and “add on”, which I later learned was single crochet. During covid I really focused on and taught myself the stitches and how to crochet various things. At the moment I’m the only one in my family who still crochets.
What an incredibly interesting interview by a fascinating lady. Thank you.
Spotted bobbin lacing in the film the Scarlet Letter’ with Demi Moore
This is just a phenomenal lecture! Thank you and Elena for this exciting content!
I’m a Navajo weaver and I see that the bobbin lacing weaves are similar as I weave designs into a tapestry and bobbin lacing you are the designs into a shape. Right now I’m teaching myself about bobbin lacing.
I am from Czech and learned lacemaking when I was 13 :) .. still have bobbins and sometimes make some samples ...so nice to hear the history in such detail :)
Elena is at least a 'national ' treasure - this is a brilliant interview, thank you from my heart.💐
I love the concentrated info. I saw someone do bobbin lace at a local textile exhibition. This is a lost art and not appreciated. Grandmas' lace veil is just netting to them. Thanks for bringing this to the general public!
You’ve made my day! Such an amazing video. Thanks a lot. Hugs from Provence, Adrien
I am a lace addict! I put it on everything. Thanks for this great video. Excellent !!!
Such an interesting history! Thank you
I absolutely loved this interview and I'm so in love with lace fabric and lace making! This was fascinating and so was Elena and her wonderfully informative presentation. I'm following you both now!!! Thanks for sharing 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Wonderful video- I will watch this again and take notes! I’ve studied textiles and textile arts for years and still found new information in this video! Many thanks!
Thank you so much for this fascinating discussion of the history of lace.
My forster video of yours. I am super excited to learn all this and I am really looking forward to checking out History Hits!!!!!
37:45 Imagine making or wearing a gown So Outstanding that people are Still Marveling at it 300 Years Later!
Yeah I could listen to this young lady talk forever!! Very interesting topic but she’s very knowledgeable and at the same time does also let’s you know when she’s not sure about something. She also makes you want you to investigate the topic. At least that’s how I felt. I would pay to hear a lecture by her.
The words fascinating and excellent keep showing in comments and rightfully so. Amazing history talk. Thank you.
This was so interesting! Thank you and Elena for making this video!
A great video 😍 I really enjoyed the interview. But because I'm not the biggest fan of crochet lace and bobbin lace is just to difficoult for me, I learned tatting lace (frivolité). I use this lace for the most of my handmade.
Fascinating video! I’ve always been interested to learn and now I want to visit the various lace museums too!
I love seeing this. I was just telling someone today about the immense emotional connection people have with tatting. While it’s never been in vogue on the scale of crochet or knitting, when I was teaching, i had people who were passionately attached to inherited pieces that was never replicated with knitted or crocheted pieces. I would have people come to the classes with bits made by an ancestor saying they wanted to learn to tat, even when they’d never done any needlework before. I just love lace of every kind!
Wonderfully informative presentation by a passionate authority. Thanks you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow... what can one say? That was just fantastic! Thank you so much from the UK :-)
You look fantastic in that outfit !! Really must say. The combo of the linen cap and lace band with the little red flower is gorgeous.
I loved this video! Elena is so knowledgeable and a great speaker. I learned so much! Thank you