Who said doilies were boring?!

Oh dear, March went by and April is almost done and I have been ignoring the blog!

Partly because I have been busy acquiring new stock for the website and much washing and ironing has been required. Just as well I have a steam generator iron which can help me whizz through the piles of damask at speed.

However, it has not all been linen and damask - lurking in the bottom of one huge box obtained from an auction in Ballycastle was a group of the most gorgeous doilies.

The doily is a strange item, it comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes, made from many different types of thread. Mostly they are cream or beige but this latest find was a riot of Neopolitan ice cream colours.

I have seen the green ones before, in fact I seem to remember Granny having some just that colour, but the pink are so pretty too. I suspect these are from the 1950s, the colour palette is a bit of a pointer in that direction.

Then there was a lacy silky one in shades of peach and green - a very open style of crochet and so dainty. Perfect for a dressing table. I think Granny used to keep these under a glass top to a side table.

The last one to emerge from the box is an absolute beauty and I will not be parting with it. Maybe you will see why........!

So often Irish crochet lace comes in pure white, or I have some on the website at the moment in a warm ecru colour, but this piece brings the exquisite art to life in a very different way.

The Clones knots are worked skilfully in a champagne coloured thread and the frilled flower heads in bubble gum and calamine pink are just gorgeous. The chevron motifs in apple green just pop from the centre making this the prettiest of mats.

To be honest I am not a huge fan of lilac as a colour, but somehow these neatly worked roundels may just have won me over.

So, whilst the peach,  pink and green doilies will be making their way onto the website, this little beauty is staying well and truly with me.

A Magnet for Lace!

Having always planned McBurney and Black to be a resource for linen, Irish Linen in particular, my intentions are being hijacked by the wonderful laces, ribbons and trims that keep coming my way. I said to a friend last week that I felt I had become a magnet for lace!

I find it hard to resist the frequent shoebox of lace that beckons and I find that my customers too are enjoying the variety in the shop. What is also fun is to find images of how the lace might have been worn at the time. I recently spied some wonderful postcards, old studio portraits from the early 1900s – here we can see the importance of lace!

In their Sunday best, the men and women were placed in formal poses and then their images captured by the photographer. Whilst I am always intrigued to see the costumes and attire of the time, it is sad that so many years later these images have just been discarded. But they tell us so much about the dress of the period.

One portrait is of a lady standing by a balustrade with a backdrop of a woodland behind her. With her hat perched at a jaunty angle and gloves held tightly is one  hand, she gazes into the distance looking rather miserable, it has to be said.

On the reverse of the photo in wonderful flowing letters is the greeting: Love and all good wishes to Nellie and George from Gussie. I assume that the lady is Gussie herself and she was obviously happy enough to use the portrait as a greeting card, so perhaps her look is a serious or pensive expression rather than a sad one! Just look at the wonderful crocheted lace collar sitting at the neck of the coat.

The second image has been taken by H.J Cowley of The Country Studio, Stroud. A market town in Gloucestershire, this photographic studio would have been the place to go for the country folk of the area wanting a formal portrait to mark a special occasion. An engagement perhaps, or a family gathering.

This image is of a couple in their 20s look unsmiling at the camera, again in rather formal pose. It seems that the idea of smiling for the photographer is one that came later. A huge corsage of flowers adorns the girl’s high necked blouse and if we zoom in , the detail and embellishment of the piece is quite superb. A plain dark skirt, but a very detailed lace trimmed blouse with pintucking and smocking to the front. Her beau has a smartly starched white shirt and they look a handsome pair.

So it looks as if I am destined to offer these beautifully handworked embellishments as well as my Irish Linen specialties! 

Crochet

One of the things that has always fascinated me about textiles is how new things pop up all the time, techniques I wasn't very familiar with, or textiles that I knew little about. Then starts the exploration and research as I try to find out as much as I can about this new subject!

Crochet seems to be the latest of these  - I never learned how to crochet as a child, but rather I was taught to knit and sew. My cousin, however, could create beautiful doilies and runners at the drop of a  hat. Granny McBurney passed that skill to her daughter, my aunt. Obviously my dad didn't need to be taught such skills!

So, whilst I knew a bit about crochet, I had never really delved into the history in any detail until about a year ago when I found the most wonderful pieces of crochet work, mainly as edging to Irish Linen tray cloths and tablecloths. I became curious to know more about this beautiful and skilful craft.

Of course once I started to know more, I began to come across more and more crochet work as I searched out new linens for the collection. Everywhere I turned I seemed to find hairpin work, relief crochet and filet lace crochet.

All sorts of styles and finishes, some quite simple and others more intricate, but all showing how much the cloth or runner was enhanced by the addition of a border or insert.

Whitework embroidery on a tray cloth was not sufficient; this lovely cloth called for a detailed relief work edging. Sadly the body of this particular piece has a lot of damage, but I am determined to use the edging somehow, perhaps overlaid on a contrasting coloured cushion.

The circular cloth above is quite stunning but in today's homes we don't tend to have small tea tables, so I think this would make a wonderful centrepiece on a dining table, layered over a vibrantly coloured tablecloth. It really allows the beautiful crochet border to shine.

Of course crochet was used in many different ways, and recently I found this gorgeous little reticule or opera purse/bag decorated with Irish Crochet lace embroidery. The frilled flower heads are a traditional element to this style of crochet. It gives a lovely 3 dimensional quality to the piece.
Even the plainest of Irish Crochet was considered intricate by comparison with other types, because each of the elements of a design would be made separately and then crocheted together.It was a technique used often for ladies' gloves which would be made of crocheted loops with Irish crochet flowers sewn on the top, just as has been done in this pretty Victorian bag.

I wonder what it will be next!