Help for 2nd Challenge

The lace|heart|art pattern #2 was designed to be accessible and enjoyable for every lacemaker, regardless of their skills and experience. The pattern comes with a pricking and working instructions for fibre as well as wire, and some helpful instruction photos.

On this support page you can find additional help with the project. The lace|heart|art challenge is intended for all lacemakers, including beginners, and we strive to make it easy for everybody to participate.  The lace|heart|art pattern#2 can be interpreted on many levels. It can be simple, or complex. It can feature one colour or many. It can be almost perfect or have a some mistakes.
In the first Challenge, we received an entry which was the first project ever for a brand new lacemaker. And that was exactly what we had in mind with the lace|heart|art contest – to encourage you to accept the challenge, explore creative possibilities of colours in handmade bobbin lace, have fun and share the lace|heart|art with other lacemakers around the world!

If you do not find answers to your questions here, feel free to ask using the “Leave a Reply” field below, or contact us by e-mail at lace.heart.art@gmail.com

We will respond and add answers and helpful hints here, as they are needed.

lace | heart | art – Where to Start?

1. Download the free pattern with instructions
2. Choosing medium: fibre or wire
3. Choosing colours
4. Making the heart
5. Making the flowers
6. Getting help from others
7. Photographing your work
8. Submitting your entry
9. Sharing photos of your entry on facebook or instagram
10. Spreading the word!

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1. Downloading the free pattern and instructions

Complete instruction kit, with the Story of Barb’s Heart, free pattern and working diagrams is available here.

Once you download the file, you can save it on your computer or reading tablet. It contains all information you will need to work on the lace|heart|art pattern. Reading the instructions on the reading device allows you to enlarge the photographs for a close-up study. You can also print the entire file (all 14 pages) or just the pages with prickings and working diagrams. When you print the prickings, make sure that they are the correct size. Print size check line is included on the page for your reference.

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2. Choosing medium

The lace|heart|art pattern #2 can be worked in fibre or in wire.

Most of the lacemakers work in threads, and the pattern can accommodate cotton, linen or silk. Since the finished project is intended to be framed and displayed as art, there is no need to consider shrinkage due to washing, and therefore different materials can be combined.

New School of Lace teaches lacemaking in fibre as well as wire, and Barbara liked both. That’s why the wire medium is included in our challenge.  You can see from the samples that when thin wire is used, it accommodates lace stitches well and creates a weave that is very similar to thread lace. Because wire is less flexible than thread, the pattern usually needs slight adjustments, such as fewer passives, or some different stitches. If you study both working diagrams and finished samples, the variance is quite obvious.

Even if you have not worked with wires before, we would like to encourage you to try! You can find examples of wire lace in the gallery of the Original Lace Art to see what is possible in wire. If it prompts your interest, you can learn more from our wire lace manual, “Wire Lacework: Lenka’s Introduction to Bobbin Lace in Wire”
New School of Lace also offers Patterns and Tutorials for Wire Lace, which offer a step-by-step instruction for wire lace beginners.

There are two fibre samples provided for your reference:
Fibre sample A was made with Bockens Lingarn, NEL 40/2 (1/2 bleached) used for tape worker and passives, and 30/2 silk yarn for cordonnet pairs.
Fibre sample B was made with Presencia Finca Cotton #30 used for tape worker and passives, and 30/2 silk yarn for cordonnet pairs. If you choose the to work with the same, or similar size threads, use the original pricking (100%).  You can choose to work with finer or thicker threads, and in that case you will need to adjust the pricking size accordingly. If you resize your pricking, please record the ratio (in %) and fill it in the entry form.

Wire sample was made with enamelled copper wire size 0.2 mm (approx. 32 AWG) in two colours: Lilac and Purple. For the gimps, Preciosa Czech glass beads in 4mm threaded on a double wire for the outside gimp, and glass seed beads threaded on a double wire for the inside gimp. The original pricking (100%) should also work for wire 0.22mm (approx. 31AWG). For wire 0.25mm (approx. 30 AWG), the pricking should be enlarger accordingly.

You are allowed (and encouraged) to submit entries in both mediums: one in fibre and one in wire!

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3. Choosing colours

We encourage you to play with colours and select the ones that are dear to your heart. There are of course many other possibilities. You can work with one colour, two, three or many… it is your choice. The colours can be complementing or contrasting, bright or dim, few or many. White is also a colour, as is black. Colours can be added by other means as well, such as beads or other materials you choose to incorporate in the design.

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4. Making the heart

Approximate thread measurements are included in the working instructions. Add more thread/wire if you plan to do longer or more elaborate bow.

Work in progress photos are coming soon…

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5. Making the flowers

The flower arrangement is open to creative interpretation. Use your imagination and work with the skills you have. Flowers are a popular theme in lace, so chances are they are not entirely new to you. You can choose to include a flower you made in one of your previous projects. You can learn a new flower pattern and add it to the heart. Or you can design your own flower arrangement in familiar technique. Don’t be afraid to experiment!

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6. Getting help from others

Sometimes it is easier to work on a new project when you can get help from more experienced lacemakers. Feel free to consult your lace|heart|art project with others – your lace instructor or members of your lace group. They can help you to navigate the unknown and suggest practical ideas and design solutions. They can even get inspired and join in the challenge!

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7. Photographing your work