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