What on earth is a drippy bottom?

Henry VIII, his six wives and Elizabeth I by Chris Parson. Bobbins and photo © Liz Baker

Or naming conventions with bobbins.

As you get into lacemaking and acquiring bobbin, you find that people refer to bobbins in one of three ways (or all of them at once, we don't care really)

1. ​Maker - Oh, that's my Archer bobbin!
2. Type of bobbin - That's a mother and baby bobbin
3. What the bobbin is made of - That's a bone bobbin

or all three - That's my bone, mother and baby Archer bobbin.  And in English, grammatically, descriptions go 3,2,1. 

So you would say; oh, they are my ebony, King Henry VIII, Chris Parsons bobbin.

---

Because whilst my Chris Parsons' Henry VIII ebony bobbin works (1,2,3), it does not work as well as the other way round, because it implies that the bobbin belongs to Chris where as 3,2,1 says that it's my bobbin.

Why do we do that?  Well, it partly the grammar but also because it's how we've done it for as long as I can remember and that's since 1988.

As lacemakers we love bobbins, whether they are plain or fancy, we adore them.  It's like a mechanic having a really got set of well balanced spanners or an oven that keeps perfect temperature for a baker.

These are the tools of our trade.

Lace Bobbins - Find the Maker (FTM) is born out of our innate need to know who made that bobbin we bought or were given.

But what happens when we don't know the maker?

Both Christine and David Springett, in their book Success to the Lace Pillow and Brian Lemin on his website suffered from this because they were identifying bobbins that were made way before they were born.  So, bobbins makers became known by features of their bobbins.

The Bitted Man was one such person.  He produced bobbins that were bitted and so he became known as the Bitted Man.

The four seasons painted by Diane Miller. Bobbins and photo © Liz Baker

So, drippy bottoms.  In Diane Miler's painting we discovered that she used a bobbin maker who produced a distinctive style of bobbin. 

These bobbins tails are rounded with what looks like a water drop coming from them.

Unable to find a maker for these bobbins, they became known in our house as the Drippy Bottom Bobbins.  A nice piece of alliteration.  And when these bobbins were shared on FTM, the name was used and stuck

When we eventually find the name of this turner, it's likely that the drippy bottom will remain and they will become Turner X's drippy bottoms or these are my bone, Diane Miller, Drippy bottoms.

---