handicraft lace and more: marca 2014

Needle lace also known as Armenian lace, Nazareth lace or Arabian lace. All I need to make it is a needle, thread and scissors of course.

Some archaeological evidences prove that this kind of lace was known in prehistoric Armenia where almost everything possible was decorated by this kind of ornament. Many women prepared their dowry making lots of laces. In XIX century Greek girls and women treated it as a source of incomes. Sometimes the only one. They started their work in five o'clock in the morning and finished when the sun went down making delicate beauties.

As many handicraft I also learned it from books. The names of individual parts of this lace are wonderful: pearls, bows, crowns, pine-apples, hives, bells, roses and many others.

My first work was a set of small tablecloths made for my mother. I used white linen and pink pearl Egyptian cotton. The base stitch is called pearls.

Pearls and crowns for my mum

My first work, not perfect but quite nice

Then I decided to make a gift for my friend Klaryssa. There were also a set of tablecloths made of gray linen embroidered in an English style with a lace trim.

A tablecloth for Klaryssa

White embroidery and needle lace with gray linen

It was 2007 year and I was invited to visit my sister in far far far-away country in the end of the world. The second end. So I wanted to give her something special. It was a much bigger tablecloth made of lilac thread.

A present for my sister

The edge of the work

The middle of the work

Bows and pine-apples can be seen

Being there I had a lot of time so I made also several smaller and bigger works. A set for a dressing table, embroidered in blue and finished with white silk lace.