bobbinlace identification 2 structural classes

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Two Structural Classes of Bobbin Lace
Distinctions of Style

© Lorelei Halley 2009

Site map Bobbin Lace History Overview Lace Terminology

Bobbinlace has roughly a dozen distinct regional/period styles which are different in working methods and technique as well as different in shapes and kinds of designs. A bobbin lace maker who knows one working method won't necessarily be able to make other kinds unless she has specifically studied those other kinds. When we refer to a style, such as Flanders or Duchesse, we are referring to the collection of working methods and structures which are typical of that style. This is complicated by the fact that museums often identify their collections by the city or geographical region of origin, and any one city may have seen stylistic and technical differences and changes in its laces over a long period of time. Thus Honiton laces of the 19th century probably did not look anything like Honiton laces of the 18th century. But there may have been strong similarities in working methods. Also, when a lacemaker refers to "Flanders Lace" she may not be thinking of the same thing as a museum curator who only thinks of point of origin, not structure. At first glance one might think that the ground determines the regional/period style. But this is not the case. In actual fact, how the cloth parts are woven is the important factor. There is more about this below and in the historical sections.

The most important distinction is between two broad classes of structure. One, called straight lace or continuous lace, starts with a lot of bobbins and makes the whole lace, ground and motifs, with these same bobbins. So what the lacemaker has to know is how to take threads out of the design motifs and move them into the ground, and then move them back again. Different regional/period styles do this differently. (See Lace Terminology for an explanation of these terms.) Complex laces of this kind may therefore use a lot of bobbins, sometimes hundreds.

The second broad structural class is called part lace, free lace (meaning freeform lace), or sectional lace. This group may have a narrow tape meandering through the design or may have several discrete motifs which widen and narrow, requiring new threads to be hung in and later removed. These discrete motifs or the meandering tape are attached to other completed parts of the lace by using a crochet hook or similar tool. So the student needs to learn how to make the tape curve and how to add and remove threads from the discrete motifs as they change shape.

Straight Laces:

Torchon, point ground laces, Flanders, Paris lace, Binche, Valenciennes, Cluny, Bedfordshire, and Genoese are all examples of straight laces. Some of these have the lines of the ground made of 2 threads twisted together, and some have thicker bars made of 4 or more threads plaited/braided together.

Here are some of the mesh grounds used in these laces:

This table contains mesh grounded straight laces of different ages. The first row have only one pair entering the motifs or clothwork at each pin.


The 2 rows below are mesh grounded straight laces with 2 pairs entering the clothwork at each pin.

The table below shows guipure straight laces -- laces with a bar or braided/plaited ground.

braided bobbin lace similar to Genoese lace

Below are more details and clarification. Torchon and point ground laces have one pair of threads entering the clothwork at each pin. These are mesh grounded laces.

Torchon bobbin laces, both from my TORCHON BOBBIN LACE LESSONS. Follow the colors of the ground threads. You can see them entering as the cloth stitch motif widens, and leaving as it narrows. In any straight lace you can see the threads moving from foot, through the ground, into the clothwork, out of the cloth and into the ground, perpetually. Follow the colors and you will see where every pair came from and where it goes.

R2 This is a simple torchon edging, using relatively few bobbins.

Bucks point bobbin lace, with point ground. Here also, you can follow the threads from the ground into the clothwork.

Bucks point worked on an enlarged scale. It is easy to follow the threads from the foot, through the ground, and into the cloth.

A Bucks point bobbin lace from Geraldine Stott's workshop. You can clearly follow the threads from the ground into the clothwork.


A torchon straight lace, of my design. I made it in 5 strips, 3 wide, 2 narrow.	This photo shows one of the wide strips in process.	The same from the front. The strip is about 5 inches wide, but needs a very large number of bobbins.	The central motif appears half finished in the 2nd photo. This is: narrow strip, wide strip, narrow strip.	Large straight lace designs were often made in strips because of the difficulty in managing hundreds of bobbins.

This torchon piece of my design has the solid border worked first and then filled it with the ground and the tree.

Flanders, Paris, Valenciennes and Binche lace have 2 pairs entering at each pin. This results in a more complex weave in the cloth stitch motifs. These are also mesh grounded laces.

Flanders, worked on a greatly enlarged scale. Blue rings show 2 pairs entering at each pin. Yellow rings show 2 pairs departing at the pin.

Flanders bobbin lace green leaving, orange entering.

L386 This is Flanders, an unusually narrow lace of this type. The working set-up is the same as for torchon.

Valenciennes bobbin lace: Orange rings - 2 pairs departing. Green rings - 2 pairs entering.

Paris lace. White ring - 2 pairs entering. Pink ring - 2 pairs leaving.

Paris bobbin lace

Guipure or braid based (plait based) straight laces. In guipure laces (braided/plaited) the ground is made of thicker bars made of 4 or more threads.

A simple Cluny bobbin lace made entirely of braids. Each line of the lace requires 4 threads. From the DMC Encyclopedia. I designed the corner.

Cluny type, an Italian design.

Cluny bobbin lace, from Annelie van Olffen. You can see that some bobbins are making the two footsides, and some are making braids. You can see all the loose threads across the top, where the bobbins were hung in.

Bedfordshire bobbin lace, much enlarged scale, from Pam Nottingham. You can see that some bobbins are coming from the cloth trail, some from the little leaf shape, some from the footside and some from the braids.

There are distinctions of technique between Cluny and Bedfordshire laces. In general terms the way pairs of threads enter and leave the meandering cloth stitch trails differ. (Jean Leader, a modern Bedfordshire expert, tells me that the old museum laces often show both the Beds and Cluny working methods in the same piece. So the distinction must be taken as "general practice" not a universal rule.)


A simple Bedfordshire learning pattern from Margaret Hamer. The orange ovals show 4 threads from the braid entering the cloth trail as passive threads (vertical threads) and staying on the near edge of that trail. The green circles show those same threads departing the trail lower down and making a braid.	Bedfordshire, enlarged scale, from Margaret Hamer. See if you can tell where each pair came from and where it went. This is a learning sample; I didn't worry about the colors.	This is a Cluny lace.	The circled area shows threads moving from the braids on the left of the trail and moving into the cloth trail, becoming weaver threads. In some cases those threads depart the trail immediately on the right side and make the headside braid. In some cases those threads stay in the trail as weaver threads.	The blue lines are the weaver leaving the trail and entering the braid on the right. The orange line are threads which left the braid on the left, briefly became trail weavers, and immediately exited into a braid on the right. The green line shows a braid pair which entered the trail and stayed in it as weaver.

Part Laces (Sectional Lace):

Part laces can be made in sections, with each leaf or flower completed as a separate unit. Or it can be made as a snaky tape, which meanders all over the design.


This is the back of one of my own designs. You can see the lumpy spots where I ended a section. It is a part lace.	This was made in 3 sections: The central flower first, then each set of leaves on the left and right.	A lace of the Milanese type. It looks like a normal Milanese tape lace, but it is actually made in sections. This is a "discrete units" kind of tape lace.	Each color distinguishes a separate motif made as a unit. In terms of structure, this is more like a part lace rather than a tape lace. But it looks like a tape lace. Many antique Milanese and Flemish tape laces that I saw at the Art Institute of Chicago were of this type.

To see a part lace project in stages of work, see: http://www.jeanmaryeke.com/Site/Design_and_make_lace_with_me.html

These are tape lace motifs extracted from a large design by DMC. The design is a single tape which uses a constant number of bobbins, but narrows and widens by changing the stitch used. Every time the color changes, I changed to a different stitch: in the bottom one to half stitch, in the top one I added twists between the cloth stitches.

				Bobbin tape lace
This row is all tape lace. Tape laces usually don't require a lot of bobbins. Lace 211 From DMC.	I started in the middle of one side, and am working the corner.	This shows lace 434 soon after starting.	Here I have nearly finished the primary tape. When the gap between the two sections of green lace is closed, that tape will be finished.	lace 434 from DMC. I added the picots on the edge; the original design had a "sewing edge".


Honiton bobbin lace with raised work, a leaf sampler. The design is from Perryman and Voysey. Lace 597	The colored rings surround discrete sections which were made as units.		This shows the reverse side when completed. The colored rings show the knotted lumps left when the long threads were cut off. The green arrow points to the basic tape. This was made first and all the sub-motifs were attached to it as they were completed.	This is the reverse side, while the lace was still in process. The long threads are the ending tails, left when their specific unit was finished and attached to the basic tape. A few sections are still not started.