Sirillian Amber Tallin

Challenges Entered: Share your Art!, Lace Challenge

Projects: 16th Century Fox in ruff & cap, 16th century bobbin lace

16th Century Fox in ruff & cap

It started with a piece of lace…and a fox.

During the pandemic, I taught myself bobbin lace and, after the obligatory practice pieces, I started making lace yardage.

I also made a fox.

When the Laurel Challenge came along, I decided I needed to display some of my lace and I decided to display it on my fox… thus the Fox Project.

So I made the fox a ruff,

which didn’t seem enough.

So, I doubled the ruff after which he looked phat,

but then I decided he needed a hat.

Add a Tudor bonnet

And he’s ready to write a sonnet

To the rooster whose feathers sit on it,

I guess.

And rejecting more bling

On the Fox hat thing,

I finished with a cape,

lined in brocade, not crepe.

Thus is the story of the Fox, Not Guy

And you may find yourself asking “why?”

To which I must reply

“Why not?”

Adapted from:

Ruff: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/ruffmake.html

Hat: http://isenfir.atlantia.sca.org/artsandsciences/files/TUDOR%20BONNET.pdf

Cape: Arnold, Janet, Crimson Velvet Circular or Compass Cloak, Patterns of Fashion 3, Item 30, London:MacMillan London Limited, 1985.

With sincere apologies for mostly using free verse, which I do not believe is within the SCA period. And also, the cape lacks embellishment because I ran out of time.

Recreating Lace from Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 4, from a Smock, item 71, page 111.

I started out with the best of intentions and with really only a beginner’s knowledge and skill. I chose this particular piece because I recognized many of the elements which were used in its execution. I thought that would be enough.

Alas, not so.

When I realized that I would not be able to recreate the lace by the deadline, I shifted my focus from the actual lace to the elements which made up the lace, and worked up skill building exercises for the elements.

When the deadline for the project came around, I had only developed 5 exercises (out of 8), and had completed only 3 of them.

In conclusion, several things frustrated my efforts to recreate this lace.

1. My own skill. I have only been making bobbin lace for about a year and during that year I have focused on Torchon. The lace I wanted to recreate from Janet Arnold uses elements which are less commonly used in Torchon and I needed to practice those more. Some of the elements I hadn’t learned at all and, realistically, could not produce to an adequate standard in the time allotted for this challenge.

2. The drawing of the lace is wrong. Referring between the photographs and the drawing of the lace, I discovered that the actual lace was a bit more complex than the drawings made it seem. I was unable to get additional photographs from the School of Historical Dress or the Museum of Fine Arts-Boston in time.

3. I needed serious research into lace of this time period. I started out with only the most superficial knowledge of the elements used (plaits, tallies, etc.) but almost none of how the lace itself was made and its historical context.

In the end, I was unable to recreate the lace because I overestimated my abilities, and underestimated the difficulty in developing the pattern of an existing lace. I needed to do more research than simply look at the drawings and photographs provided. I still intend on recreating this lace (and, eventually, others from this book) but need to acquire more knowledge as well as skill.

p.s. Books are on order. And, maybe I should befriend a curator at the MoFA-Boston (or two.)