19/5/2024 0 Comments Where do we all come from?Liz writes:
Today I downloaded the geographical locations that our facebook group members come from. The bigger the dot, the more lacemakers are members.
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15/5/2024 0 Comments Poll - why do you buy bobbins?In our 4th poll, May 9th, we asked why do you buy bobbins. 208 members of the FTM Facebook group voted.
And big surprise .... NOT ... 32% of us buy them because They are pretty. Do you need a better excuse than that? If you add to that the 16% who bought a bobbin just because I could then we have 48% of us buy bobbins just ... well, because. And why not! Great to see that we are buying commemoratives - between celebrating lace days, national/international events and personal/family events, that accounts for 32% of our bobbin buying. But don't forget bobbin a month clubs. A great way to build up a collection from your favourite maker. Liz writes: At my first lace fair, Springetts, September 1989, I met Shelia Perrin, of SMP Lace. I was carefully watching how much I had to spend and trying to get the most for my small amount of money. I was trying to work out how to afford pillow, bobbins, books ... well everything and she told me to get my basic bobbins so I could start making but find a maker I really liked and sign up to their bobbin a month club. Her advice was to buy the most expensive bobbin I could so that in years to come I had built up a collect that meant something to me. "Even if you just buy one bobbin a month", Sheila siad, "at the end of the year you will have 6 beautiful pairs of bobbins, then at the end of the next year, 12 pairs and so on." I've been making lace for over 30 years. I now have a fantastic collection of bobbins. But those first SMP bobbins, my travel bobbins and my honitons made from different woods are at the heart of that collection and all because Shelia took time to talk with me. ![]() When I first started to make lace, a bobbin from Sarah Jones or Heather Power cost £4.50. Doesn't seem like much now but in those days, my rent was £400 a month. So a bobbin was about a tenth of my monthly rent. I came back from that first lace fair and told my mum about everything I'd seen and how I only had the absolute minimum of equipment (and that had been bought on a pay as you go basis through a club at my work). I told her what Sheila Perrin had said. My mum, the angel that she was, said that she would pay for one bobbin a month as a birthday present so I could buy one a month myself and I'd build up my collection of bobbins quicker. ![]() I chose to buy the Orchids myself and my mum paid for the tulips. Years later, I lost one of the tulips in a house move, a few years after I also lost mum. I reached out to Sarah and asked about replacing it. Sarah explained that she had stopped painting the tulips a while back but if I could work out which I was missing she would see if she still had her original sketches. So, I got out all the tulips, photographed them, sent over the photo and descriptions, Sarah found her sketch and a few weeks later I got my replacement bobbin. Tulips were a particular favourite of both myself and my mum and each time I handle those bobbins I remember the kindness of my mum in buying them and that of Sarah in repainting a lost bobbin. We recently ran a poll on the FTM facebook group asking 'why do you buy bobbins' and 6.2% said that they do because they are members of a bobbin a month club. This is why bobbin a month clubs are so important. Back on the 6th May, we asked the FTM Facebook Group what type of bobbin they use. 208 of our members responded
Whilst we weren't surprised to see that East Midlands, spangled bobbins were top with 50%, we were also surprised that East Midlands, spangles bobbins were top with 50%. Why? Well, we have a truely international membership, so all the different bobbin types were really interesting, but as lacemakers, we know just how much we are drawn to a sparkly spangle! Nice to see that Honiton and Binche get an honourable mention, both coming in at 10% with square bobbins following close behind at 7%. On the early May Bank Holiday Sunday this year, 2024, we asked the members of the FTM Facebook Group how they liked their bobbins to be adorned.
We asked: Are you a plain jane or a flower power lacemaker? How do you like your bobbins to look? 182 group members replied and it seems that the group is divided between exotic woods and painted bobbins that catch our eye (or as we put it: whatever the artist is offereing) |
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© Rothwell Bobbins & thelacebee 2021 Onwards
This site was designed and built by the Liz Baker FIDM
© Rothwell Bobbins & thelacebee 2021 Onwards