useless work

They did it again (have you read my post are you serious?)!
Here it is another authoritative source:
Dictionnaire critique et raisonné des étiquettes de la cour, des ..., Volume 2 - by Stéphanie Félicité de Genlis
"Cet ouvrage en général ne servoit a rien" ... Dear Milady, every lace is a frivolousness, nevertheless I've found it very useful on several occasions...

knotting - detail

Pictures are details of my knotting work, that I purposely made for an exhibition held by the local lace association, to show what this work was about.

knotting - the flower drawing is designed by me

The exhibition hosted authentic lace from 1600 and 1700, private collections, and reproductions of costumes of that age. Many thanks to the precious help given by Alessandra, her site is Merletto Italiano.

That is how the knotting was displayed:

knotting - displayed on a table, near by a short description and a picture

Madame de Genlis, in 1818, wrote that the work with the shuttle was useless. Also, I found a play written by Goldoni (Italian source!) in 1756, "The Dutch Doctor", in which the knotting is mentioned, in fact there's a lady who says that knotting is her hobby ("lavorier non si chiama") and she's going to do couching and put it on a dress. The oldest portrait I've found with knotting it is one from 1743, in Pinterest, but I followed the link and it is from a museum (THE MET) where unfortunately they write that the picture is "not in view". I've been collecting pictures in a board in Pinterest. Here is the link: https://it.pinterest.com/ninettacaruso/ritratti-knotting/

Follow Ninetta's board ritratti knotting on Pinterest.

To make my knotting, I followed the instructions showed in this site: knotting shuttle videos (http://www.cfgriffith.com/image-gallery/knotting-shuttle-videos/). I also designed the 2 flowers for the picture.

For couching, I used the same stitches showed in the mentioned site, that in Italian we call "punto posato", literally it is laid down stitch, it is something very well known in the gold and silver embroidery. (http://www.iccd.beniculturali.it/siti_tematici/Scheda_VeAC/lemmario/index.asp@page=consultazionealfabetica&lettera=P&idCapo=298.html)
(http://www.iccdold.beniculturali.it/siti_tematici/Scheda_VeAC/lemmario/index.asp@page=consultazionealfabetica&lettera=p&idCapo=298&indietro=1.html)

knotting - back side

Many children came to visit the exhibition, of course they wanted to try making little knots! Very useful way to catch their attention!

And in the next picture, there are 3 little gifts for friends, bag mirrors, made with the same technique:

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related posts:

are you serious?

quite a story 

quite a story

I've been knotting, tons of simple knots not flipped, not the same knot we use in tatting. That is my feeling, it is a different knot, even if I discovered that the shuttle is very useful to hold the thread. So the same or similar tool, the shuttle, but also the movement is different, now I have my right hand a little cramped and the left wrist tired... I'll soon be back tatting!

I've used three moulinè stranded embroidery skeins, wound together.

There's a site that has very useful infos about knotting, it's a great help for anybody who'd like dipping their toe in the water:
http://www.cfgriffith.com/image-gallery/knotting-shuttle-videos/

Then I've googled in search of pictures, but couldn't find any that really I liked, so I drawn 2 flowers and now here it is on the fabric:

About the fabric, there is quite a story to tell: it is pure cotton (I think) and I was told that it was from a parachute, picked up after the second war by my granny and her mother in law, cleaned and reused for clothes, sheets and tablecloths.

Ciao,
Ninetta

UPDATE:  My granny is 97yo, she's deaf but lucid and I could ask her, she remembers well that parachutes and confirmed they were pure silk. The fabric described in this post is pure cotton. They used to live near the parachuting school based at the military airport, and she used to sew for her family, also reusing other discarded wwii paratroopers' fabric and other generic military fabric.

zoliduo

These beads are intriguing...

They are Czech ZoliDuo® (Two Hole Pressed Paisley/Comma shape Beads) ~5mmx8mm beads.
I really wonder where the name zoliduo come from.

I bought one left and one right pack, there were 30 beads per pack, I could tat two bracelets but one is shorter, that is my fault because I started with a shuttle already loaded and the thread was a leftover from a previous project...

It's a challenge to load those beads in the correct order!

This was only my first experiment, I like this shape a lot and I can't wait to have some packets more, but at present I don't know when I'll buy those again.

Purple thread was an old purchase in a fair, it is a 100% polyester. The seller (if I'm right) was "Le gemme creation isola d'Ischia" that has a page in facebook: https://it-it.facebook.com/Legemmecreation/

While I'm waiting to have more "paisley" beads, I've started another project, that is because the local association of lace is going to hold an exhibition that will be open for 10 days next month, there will be samples from '600 and '700. I hope to have something - very little - done in one month!

That is "knotting", there's a thread in Craftree about it, here it is the link:
https://www.craftree.com/forum/threadfs/37431
What is going to be? A framed picture with a paisley?

A curiosity for you: in Italian we call paisley "motivo cachemire", the word cachemire alone indicates the fiber, from the Kashmir.

Ciao,
Ninetta