lynxlace.com   Kinds of Lace -   Distinguish Different Types of Lace   Lace Identification   © Lorelei Halley 2010

  Site Map    Compare       Lace Terminology       Historical Overview      Bobbinlace - 2 Structural Classes    

  Needle Lace Introduction   Pulled thread Work       Hardanger Embroidery    

  Drawn Thread Work         Embroidery on Net         Filet Lacis and Tenerife/Sol Lace     Knitting Crochet and Tatting 

Hand made lace comes in several kinds, which are all made in very different ways, using very different tools.  In the old days, in the heyday of lace, a lace maker would probably not know how to make different types of lace, but only one form.  Developing enough skill to make really complicated pieces takes a considerable effort and time. Since modern lace makers are hobbyists, doing it for their own pleasure, many of us learn several forms of lace making, so that we can understand their possibilities and limitations.   Some forms everybody knows about, and some are very rare.  Follow the links to see more detail on each form of lace making.  They can be grouped by their tools.

• Single thread techniques
  • knitting  {knitting needlesJ}
  • crochet and Irish crochet  (crochet hooks}
  • tatting  (shuttle or tatting needles)
• Multiple threads -- bobbin lace (actually a form of weaving)
• Needle laces -- Made of button hole stitches and requires only needle and thread, and sometimes cloth scraps and paper pattern to make a temporary base. Some lace makers work in the hand, some use a pillow. 
  • true needle lace -- The basis, the skeleton, is the cordonnet or outline threads couched onto multi-layered temporary backing. 
  • knotted needle laces -- puncetto and oya/bebilla -- made in the hand with only needle and thread
• Embroidered laces made on a handmade skeleton or substrate, requires a frame or a template of plastic, wood or cardboard
  • filet lace (filet lacis) -- embroidery worked on a knotted square mesh. Once the knotted mesh is made, the work is mounted in a square frame of metal wire or wood, and then embroidered.
  • sol laces (includes tenerife, nanduti, Hvar) -- Made on a scaffold, like the spokes of a wheel, and worked on a template which is round, hexagonal or square (usually)
• Embroidered laces -- embroidery on machine made cloth, either woven or hexagonal net, using needles and requires embroidery hoop.
  • tulle embroidery (embroidery on machine made hexagonal net, embroidered tulle)
• embroidery on woven cloth
  • pulled thread work -- no threads removed, stitching with strong tension makes pattern of holes
  • drawn thread work -- some threads are pulled out and stitching gathers the remaining threads into decorative clumps
  • Hardanger and other geometric cutwork -- holes are cut into the fabric after having their edges reinforced, then decorative stitching is added to the holes.
  • Buratto -- the embroidery and filling stitches of filet lacis, but worked on a loosely woven cloth with large spaces between the threads

Single thread techniques:    knitting, crochet, tatting   These are the most common kinds, and everybody has heard of them.
Knitted Lace:			Knitting:  usually made on two long needles, but one long flexible needle with points on both ends can also be used (a modern invention). This method is used for making large flat objects. One can also use a set of 4 or 5 needles.  This method is used for working in rounds to make round, hexagonal flat objects  or for  making tubular items like socks.  Both hands are used to hold the needles and the work, and one hand moves the thread around the active needle.   Knitting can be solid for a sweater, or made with holes and lacey.  A stitch called a yarn over is what makes the holes.  It can be made moderately coarse for sweaters or super fine for lace tablecloths or veils.  knitted lace examples
Crochet:			Crochet lace: made with a steel hook about 6 inches long (for fine scale work).  Plastic and wooden hooks can be used for large scale work.  The thread is wrapped around one hand to get control of the tension on the thread, while the hook in the other hand makes the stitches.   Crochet in general is a very useful technique for making clothing and objects for the home, like blankets and afghans.  Worked semi-fine it can make lacey clothing, collars or decorative mats.     Irish crochet is a particular style of crochet invented during the 19th century to imitate Duchesse or Honiton bobbin lace, or various needlelaces.  It is distinguished from the more common crochet by having raised and layered parts.  The motifs are worked densely in shapes to imitate plant forms like petals and leaves, and some parts are worked over a thick padding cord to give a raised or relief effect.  The grounding is usually chain stitch with picots, to imitate bobbin lace braids or needlelace buttonholed bars.   examples                   more examples
Tatting:		tatting shuttles   tatting needles  another  Tatting needles must be the same diameter for their whole length, even at the eye.   narrow shuttles for Celtic tatting	Tatted lace always has little bumpy rings, but may also have long arches (bars) or oval leaves (center row of blue lace).  It is made with an oval shuttle with one pointy end.  The work is held in the hands with the thread wrapped around one hand as you work. The shuttle in the other hand is moved over and under these wrapped threads to make the knots. At the present time there is a lot of interest in needle tatting, where the stitches are formed onto a needle, instead of using a shuttle.  But it is still tatting.    The first part of this one shows tatting in process:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjpSY4oFMTo&feature=related     This one shows the natural movement, slow with thick cord:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljXBGDVwEIU&NR=1       Start with needle tatting.  It is easier to understand.        The best, for absolute beginners: http://www.instructables.com/id/Learn-Needle-Tatting-With-My-Flower-Pendant-1/       This video shows rings, picots, bars, closing rings, attaching to existing rings: http://youtu.be/73luorqg8v4      tatted examples

Bobbin lace-also called pillow lace:  a multiple thread weaving technique which can produce a wide variety of weaves, meshes, bars, and leaves.  The working base is called a pillow but is actually packed quite hard.  It is really a gigantic pincushion.
	bobbins	pillows
Bobbin Lace	traditional bobbins     modern bobbins		working  Doris Southard, left, and me, at a workshop in Chicago in 1987.	Historic and antique bobbin lace was made to embellish clothing, and sometimes to decorate household linens.  Modern lace makers do sometimes use the old designs and make reproductions.  But some are also designing new work with very modern designs. Other tools needed:   pins, pricker, pricking card    learning bobbin lace   See  many photos of lacemakers a work.  more lacemakers at work.
				Modern laces in the old style.
	by Ilske Thomsen of Hamburg	by Lorelei Halley		Modern laces

Laces made with a needle   (But not all are true needle lace.)
True Needle Lace   (punto in aria)	traditional point de gaze  traditional Venetian lace  modern needle lace		Needle lace is basically derived from embroidery and the only essential tools are needles, thread, a pattern and temporary backing materials.  In true needlelace no manufactured parts, or parts made by some other method, are permanently incorporated into the work.  It can be worked in the hand, if the pieces are small, or attached to a pillow so both hands can guide the thread.  It consists of thousands and thousands of buttonhole stitches, of which there are a great variety.    The basic scaffold is a pair of outline threads onto which all the lace threads are attached.  The working setup consists of 2 or more layers of cloth, with the paper pattern on top.    Anything can be used as a pattern: any photograph, simple drawing, am image from a child's coloring book.   See needlelace and learning pages.     Working setup, and another working setup.       modern needle lace                    antique needle lace
Puncetto	puncetto mat     another mat	http://needlelacetalk.ning.com/group/puncetto	Knotted buttonhole stitches, made with only a needle and thread, no backing needed, with careful tension control.  Designs are always geometric.
Knotted Mediterranean Lace	c/o Carolyn Wetzel  floral edging	Discussiongroup  for oya/bebilla	Also called bebilla, oya, Turkish needlelace, Armenian needlelace, Kene. Knotted buttonhole stitches made only with a needle and thread.  Can be made directly onto cloth as an edging, or in rounds for circular laces, or as little flowers made into an edging, or to stand alone.  Designs may be round mats or floral designs.
Filet Lacis and Sol Laces/Tenerife are both laces which, in conception, are embroidery, but they make their own mesh or web or foundation.  They do not use woven cloth or machine made hexagonal net as a basis.     Filet lacis and Tenerife
Filet Lace --   Filet Lacis		Basic knotted mesh	Filet lacis is worked on a knotted square mesh, formerly hand made.  Once the net is made, it usually uses a square wire or wooden slat frame to hold the work for the embroidery.  Traditionally the lace maker would start by making her own square knotted mesh, and would then embroider it with cloth stitch or darning stitch, with some other decorative stitches.  Most filet is worked on a square mesh, but it is also possible to create the mesh by working rounds.     The last half of this one shows various elements of filet in process.  For list of online and printed resources.   more examples and tools   More examples tools and stitches.  examples
Sol Laces     tenerife, nanduti, Hvar		Some possible forms   Needle for sol laces Very  basic motif	Tenerife, nanduti, Hvar and the sol laces  are worked on a thread base laid down in the form of spokes of a wheel.  The spoke base can use ordinary woven fabric as a temporary backing, or can use a small wooden, plastic or cardboard form as a base.    Then darning stitch, coral knot and festoon stitch (a loose buttonhole stitch) decorate the spokes and bind them into patterns. Large pieces are made up of multiple round shapes stitched together, but squares and hexagons are also possible.  Nanduti, in particular, also uses small irregular shapes to fill in the gaps between the larger round medallions.   List of resources online  Discussion of various templates of different kinds.  laces and tools  more templates     Another working setup: http://www.nandutilace.com/theprocess.html    And another working setup:    http://www.rendasol.org.br/index-es.php   examples

Embroidered Laces -- laces made on a machine made fabric, either hexagonal mesh or woven cloth.  Embroideries in which holes and transparency play an important part in the design.   These all use tools typical of embroidery: needles and a frame (round hoop,square, or rectangular).
Tulle Embroidery (embroidered net)  --   Embroidery on hexagonal net		Embroidered net  A piece in process.  Closeup.     A collection of links to photos and work in process.  The middle of this album has a sampler of stitches. More embroidered tulle.	Embroidery on hexagonal net. This form is worked on machine made net and first appeared in the world when large pieces of clear machine net became available, during the 1820s and 1830s.       There are 2 varieties of embroidered net.  One is called needlerun, complex darning patterns' Limerick is another name for it.  The second type is called tambour and consists of chain stitches, which can be made with a needle or a tambour hook.  This type is also called Lierse lace or Coggeshall.     examples
Embroideries on woven fabric -- embroidered laces.  These also use the tools typical of embroidery: hoop or frame, needles, fabric and thread.
Pulled Thread Embroidery		Pulled thread work   more pulled thread	Pulled thread work (pulled thread embroidery, drawn fabric embroidery)  Pulled thread work does not remove any fabric threads, but just pulls them together into clumps, leaving a pattern of holes in the cloth.  Also called ajour arbeit or ajour stickerei.
Drawn Thread Work		Drawn thread work  Look at photos 56-61 in this album.	Drawn thread embroidery. This kind does remove some fabric threads in a regular pattern, usually leaving a very loose web in place.    Threads can be withdrawn in only one direction, or in two.
Hardanger		Hardanger   Ukrainian myreschka  Greek Lefkara   Reticella embroidery  more Hardanger	Hardanger embroidery.  Designs are geometric, based on square holes where fabric threads are cut out.      The Hardanger style was originally Norwegian, but has become popular in many places in the world.  Greece and the Ukraine have their own version of geometric cutwork embroidery.      The original was probably the Italian reticello embroidery.
Buratto	small Buratto mat    detail - large mat		Uses all the filling stitches and decorative stitches of filet lacis, but it is worked on a very loosely woven cloth with large gaps between the threads.  So it looks like filet lacis from a distance.

Human ingenuity constantly creates new ideas and new combinations.  In the lace world this can drive you crazy because of all the hybrid forms that have been invented.

Mixed lace:  laces incorporating some manufactured parts or applique.

• Mixed Tape Laces -- Use a pre-made tape (either machine made or crochetted), with needle lace stitches to fill the gaps.
  • Battenberg and Branscombe start with a machine woven tape and add needle lace stitches into the empty spots to hold the lace together.  I have heard that some Branscombe point was made with bobbin made tapes, but I have never seen this myself.  Some modern work is being called "Brussels lace" in an attempt to make it sound better.  (The term "Brussels lace" more properly belongs to highly complex and difficult bobbin lace of the 18th century.)
  • Romanian needlepoint lace is similar to Battenberg, except that instead of a machine woven tape a long strip of crocheted work forms the basis of the design.  http://www.bestneedleart.com/23.html
• Carrickmacross is an Irish lace invented during the 19th century which starts with machine made hexagonal net, applies fine fabric to the net to make the dense motifs and adds embroidery to the net parts.  It also involves cutting away some of the layered cloth.  
  • http://www.internationaloldlacers.org/MarionJonesPOM/marionjonespom.html 
  • http://api.ning.com/files/9FgO6fzfn9sMp6FdMKDRmtpHsD80s-xJH9CvUXh0fkBTc6S23aMpMBCxnDr0KqvvfBKApLhfzEWaX8ohzTbipVtZ-AR6B6x0/NetCutworkRunner.jpg
  • http://api.ning.com/files/yzr918DXGYRephd5LJYTCJbR*m-iG*8CaVfOGuUXQXBXtCRPuo*RNbkV3RNze8CfE8MWxJ448CKKVDw0m9gJhCjzXSuFSJoj/Carrickmacrosslace4.jpg
  • http://api.ning.com/files/itJiSUF1AduHO9HoUZNIlD6MZ5kKBvAdxC1TCjV1Eoi9Tl65uG16bdQm1fHOFIwrLuE-YhCd714186eKDnfgieoxSP5CdPbv/Carrickmacrosslace3.jpg
  • http://api.ning.com/files/4e6Ib5NzHNJcXn9tfrkCR2ON3S*sJID3RdstrpAs8gfvAfcl0*TYMdVdogU-kSthzzu5KNaZgQb4gkZ9z9X5CpknsbNTCUw1/Carrickmacrosslace2.jpg
  • http://api.ning.com/files/yzr918DXGYRyv24gIpHTeFu2aByH4fIftabSzH88PZtST5zq7njvWgL0UnmYV4Hc5bksbJ7QUrKplLuULHcTB9K10ugmuUcZ/Carrickmacrosslace1.jpg

Patchwork Laces were popular around 1900.  These were sewn together from small pieces made by entirely different elements.  Most that I have seen included some bobbin lace and some filet lacis, but other elements also occurred.

Also look at Compare, which shows some of these kinds side by side, to help you learn to distinguish the different types of lace.

To see many different forms of lacemaking in process:   http://www.youtube.com/user/lacenews#p/p

A new site for the discussion of all forms of hand made lace:  http://laceioli.ning.com    http://laceioli.ning.com/group/identification-history   See      http://needlelacetalk.ning.com/group/needlelace-identification-history   for needle lace in particular.

An exhaustive list:  http://www.lacegumnuts.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=175&Itemid=57

December 10, 2010                   Last edited:   10/19/16