Different Types of Bobbin Lace

Many styles of lace were made in the heyday of lacemaking (approximately the 1500s-1700s) before machine-made lace became available. Some well-known types of bobbin lace are:

• Honiton - A very fine English lace with many flowers
• Torchon - Well-known for its variety of beautiful, often geometric grounds
• Cluny - Flowers, braids and picots (tiny loops of thread) make this light and delicate
• Bedfordshire lace (Beds) - this has flowing lines and picots (to foil the machines)
• Bucks point Buckinghamshire lace - very "lacy" with characteristic hexagon ground and often with a gimp thread (a heavier thread worked through for emphasis)
• Mechlin, a fine, transparent Flemish lace known for its floral patterns, fine twisted-and-plaited, hexagonal ground, and outlined designs
• Valenciennes, a French bobbin lace with a net-like background originating in the 18th century

  I will post about each one in the coming weeks.