Wednesday, August 01, 2007

First Reticella Piece

I have been playing with a few pieces of stitching lately, one of which is this piece of Reticella. I have always gone weak at the knees when I have seen pictures of this type of work in books. The technique is very old & dates back to the 1400's.

This has been worked by withdrawing threads from a piece of linen, then filling the resulting holes with needlelace. I think there are some books out there that describe Reticella as purely needlelace, but the earliest forms were made this way. I can understand why it quickly evolved into all needlelace, as to buy this type of fabric is $80/m, only to throw most of it in the bin as we create the holes. Funny isn't it, but the journey of learning & creating is worth every $ I have spent.

Should be finished soon, then to decide what to do with it. Mmmmmm more food for thought.

3 comments:

Mandy said...

What delicate work, Jenny. I love the colours you are using, just the right intensity of colour. Displaying it on what looks like a black ground, really shows it off to advantage.

Nola said...

It's absolutely gorgeous! So delicate. I just love it.

NormaH said...

Ooooooooh! My eyes are falling out of my head ....... this is sooooooo beautiful!