It is time of lace meetings

Lace meetings in Spain start in spring. Because of the nice weather, lace associations take their laces out of the rooms to show them to all people interested in seeing how bobbin lace is made.

First of all, for those who don't know what a lace meeting is,  I am going to explain it briefly.  A lace meeting is a day of gathering of many lacers,  who go out to the street with their  bobbins and their pillows to show that this craft is  not lost,  that it is even more in fashion than ever  and that it is not as complicated as it may look like at first sight.  Everybody can participate in a lace meeting, no matter if she/he belongs to a lace association or not. But a previous inscription is necessary, to book a place at a table. So, what we usually see when attending a lace meeting is lots of large tables where many lacers from all over the country place their pillows and demonstrate for the public.

Table of the lacers of Gijón (at Seville 2011)

Lace meetings are interesting for many reasons. First of all, because we can see hundreds of lacers practicing their hobby. We can ask them questions about a particular stitch, where to attend lace lessons here or there, where to buy books and patterns.

Apart from this, at a meeting we will find many shops, which attract the attention of most lace lovers. Here we can buy almost everything related to lace: from the most varied types of bobbins and threads, to pillows, pillow stands, magazines with beautiful designs and even material to sew our edgings, and many more accessories which we don't find in the shops of our towns or villages.

Trabajos escuela Mi Pequeño Taller (Guadalajara 2010)

As in spring there are so many lace meetings which we can attend, we have to choose which ones we cannot miss. I usually choose two meetings a year. One beeing always the one in my own town: Guadalajara. I attend the meeting with some of my students, and beeing very interested in teaching, in class and outside the class, we place a selection of the work done along the year on our table. And each piece is accompanied by an indication of the type of lace shown. I think it is important to use these meetings to to teach our lacer makers as well as the visitors. It is nice to know how to make lace, but if we also know where the laces we make come from and learn to identify styles and techniques , we add much more interest to our hobby. Apart from this, most lacers don't work patterns designed by themselves. They are using patterns designed by someone else. It is essential to make this name known. It is something we owe the author.

So, be alert and take advantage of the most expected season for lacers.

New bobbin lace magazine: Vuelta y Cruz/Twist and Cross

I have the pleasure to announce you the release of the

new bobbin lace magazine  
Vuelta y Cruz/Twist and Cross

I hope you find it interesting and that you enjoy making the laces and reading the articles included, all of them original and from lacers from all over the world.  
The texts are both in Spanish and English.

I will be present at the following lace meetings: 

8th May, at Berga (Barcelona)

I will update the information in the magazine's own web:

                                                        http://www.vueltaycruz.es/

New bobbin lace magazine

Spanish bobbins from 1950

And lets continue with a piece of news.

I have a good reason for having been away from the blog for some time. Aproximately one year ago I bet on a project I considered to be very interesting and I hope all lacers will like: I have created a bobbin lace magazine, which will be very soon on sale.

The magazine, whose name and logo I will comment on my next post,  once they have been registered, is a magazine which includes original patterns from international bobbin lacers and a variety of techniques.  It will also include articles related to bobbin lace, which will give the magazine a didactic and educative approach. It is written in Spanish and in English.

More information soon.

New Spanish Group MI PEQUEÑO TALLER

For many years I have been very grateful to ARACHNE, a serious bobbin lace group in the Internet. I have learnt a lot from ARACHNE and I still am. And I have been trying to create a similar group in Spanish, so that all those Spanish speaking lacers that cannot participate in Arachne because they don't speak any English, can have a serious group where they can learn and find themselves comfortable.

So, after a whole year without any activity, I restart the Yahoo group Mi pequeño Taller, with changes. In previous stages of the group, we worked together, studying and analizing the works we did. And now I want it to be a place where to comment and identify laces, where ask and solve doubts and questions related to bobbin lace, comment books, magazines, lace meetings, congresses, experiences...

Mi Pequeño Taller

I hope that Mi Pequeño Taller will be, again, a place of reunion and learning of an activity many os us love. Join us and participate.

But bear in mind the following: a group works if its subscribers work. It is necessary to participate, to collaborate... so that there are new posts and new themes of interest.

NOTE: For all those who don't know me, it is important to know that the group can only be used to talk about bobbin lace, and that personal themes, birthday congratulations, publicity, chains of messages... have to be sent outside the group. This is a serious group for people really interested in bobbin lace.

I also insist in respecting copyright of authors and designers, which means that it is not permitted to upload Pictures or Archives of scanned books or magazines without permission of its authors.