Unknown Makers - Do you know these bobbins?
Unknown mother and baby
Sometimes, normally at the end of a lace day you buy something and didn't quite get the supplier's name. If you have any idea who the makes or the bobbins shown on this page are I would really like to know. Please email me at thelacebee@btinternet.com with any help you can give me.
The mother and baby and captured ball bearings were bought at the Uxbridge Lace Day in 1993. Always one to spurn superstition I bought the mother and baby bobbin. The square beads at the top of the spangle are from Tuffnell Glass.
Superstition? Well, everyone was telling me that you should only buy a mother and baby bobbin (that's a bobbin where a small bobbin is held captive in the main bobbin's body), ... sorry ... you should only buy a mother an baby bobbin if you have children.
Would a very large cat count?
After all, you are talking about the woman who got married in green and went to the wedding with her husband to be.
Yes, we throw biscuits in the face of superstition and blow raspberries, with wiggly fingers, at fate!
The mother and baby and captured ball bearings were bought at the Uxbridge Lace Day in 1993. Always one to spurn superstition I bought the mother and baby bobbin. The square beads at the top of the spangle are from Tuffnell Glass.
Superstition? Well, everyone was telling me that you should only buy a mother and baby bobbin (that's a bobbin where a small bobbin is held captive in the main bobbin's body), ... sorry ... you should only buy a mother an baby bobbin if you have children.
Would a very large cat count?
After all, you are talking about the woman who got married in green and went to the wedding with her husband to be.
Yes, we throw biscuits in the face of superstition and blow raspberries, with wiggly fingers, at fate!
Bought at a Chester needlecraft shop in 2004
In January 2004 my husband (now who was 'to be' then) came back from Australia to live again in the UK. When he flew in we went on a tour round some of my favourite places; Stratford upon Avon, Worcester, the Cotswolds and the city of Chester. Just off from the Elizabethan shopping runs there used to be a small needlecraft shop and when we visited there on that trip I bought four bobbins.
They are a little chunkier than my normal choice, but there was something about the feel of them that made me want to buy them.
Two of the bobbins (one rose wood and one ebony) have inlays of pewter ... perhaps a foretelling of my obsession with Chris Parsons' beautiful inlaid pewter bobbins. A fellow lacemaker has suggested that these two bobbins may well be by Acorn Bobbins.
However, today, I made a discovery. While browsing Jo Firth's stand I saw the banded pewter bobbin but in ebony. I asked if either Jo or her husband, Ash, knew who the maker was but all they could tell me is that were made by a maker from Cheshire who they bought the stock of when he stopped turning bobbins. This bears out my buying them in Chester but draws me only a little closer to identifying them. I'm emailing groups in the area to see if they can tell me more.
Of the other two; one is ebony with a silver ring whilst the other one is, if I remember correctly, tulipwood with rings made from the same piece of wood surrounding the base.
They are a little chunkier than my normal choice, but there was something about the feel of them that made me want to buy them.
Two of the bobbins (one rose wood and one ebony) have inlays of pewter ... perhaps a foretelling of my obsession with Chris Parsons' beautiful inlaid pewter bobbins. A fellow lacemaker has suggested that these two bobbins may well be by Acorn Bobbins.
However, today, I made a discovery. While browsing Jo Firth's stand I saw the banded pewter bobbin but in ebony. I asked if either Jo or her husband, Ash, knew who the maker was but all they could tell me is that were made by a maker from Cheshire who they bought the stock of when he stopped turning bobbins. This bears out my buying them in Chester but draws me only a little closer to identifying them. I'm emailing groups in the area to see if they can tell me more.
Of the other two; one is ebony with a silver ring whilst the other one is, if I remember correctly, tulipwood with rings made from the same piece of wood surrounding the base.
I very rarely buy raffle tickets - I have a strange thing about gambling in any form so I normally prefer to 'donate' the money to the group rather than buy the tickets. Every now and again I can't get out of it and I buy a couple of tickets and on this occasion in 2005 I won a pair of bobbins which are apparantly Tasmanian Black Wattle. I know this because it says so on the bobbin. See, sometimes I'm quite intelligent!
The spangles have a kookaburra and a bilby on them which my husband found on ebay from a supplier of sterling silver charms.
Dangly spangles can be an issue with sewings but it's amazing how many things you can find to make that don't need sewings.
If the idea of spangles and bobbins are to make up a picture of your life then these two bobbins and their spangles who what has been the best bit of my life for the past 7 years. Each time I get these out I touch a little bit of what makes my husband the man he is ... Australia.
The spangles have a kookaburra and a bilby on them which my husband found on ebay from a supplier of sterling silver charms.
Dangly spangles can be an issue with sewings but it's amazing how many things you can find to make that don't need sewings.
If the idea of spangles and bobbins are to make up a picture of your life then these two bobbins and their spangles who what has been the best bit of my life for the past 7 years. Each time I get these out I touch a little bit of what makes my husband the man he is ... Australia.
Pre-Wond Bobbin
Back in the early 90s when I learnt to make lace I worked in North West London for BT - in and out of all the telephone exchanges. (In fact I learnt to make lace at Willesden Telephone Exchange). I spent alot of time in and out of Kenton telephone exchange and the tube stop was just down the road from where I worked at Shoot-up Hill, Kilburn. On the bridge at Kenton Station was a small treasure trove of a needlecraft shop called De Denne (it was located at 159 / 161 Kenton Road).
Mostly people bought DMC threads and wools but they had bits and pieces going back decades that were tucked in drawers. As the shops on the bridge were being gradually closed down to make way for a new development they were pulling out all sorts of things and selling them off. Being on a tight budget, I did the classic thing of buying things because they were reasonable even though I have absolutely no use for them.
However, one day the lady in the shop pulled out a lace bobbin that was about an inch shorter than any other I had except on my travel pillow so I bought this bobbin to use as gimp bobbin for the travel pillow. The lady tried to sell it to me as a time saver as it came with a pre-wound spool on the neck of the bobbin but as the thread looked like DMC 30 but was discoloured I doubted if I would ever use the spool. To be honest I think I really bought it because it was a curiosity.
Strictly speaking this is not an unknown maker as the bobbin clearly says that it is Le Tjevoli but as I have no idea who that it then I think I can say it's unkown.
The label has the following words on it; Le Tjevoli, fuseau bobbin, porte-fil, amovibie. My french is a little rusty but with the help of google translate I can say that this says roughly that it is a ready filled spool of yarn on a bobbin (like I hadn't worked that out). I can find no straight translation for amovibie but amovibile is kind of pushbutton which might explain the top of the bobbin that comes off. I have found a reference to this particular bobbin on google books and if you are interensted then follow this link : http://bit.ly/LeTjevoli. If anyone has any further information to add to this then I would be very interested in hearing from you - do email me at thelacebee@btinternet.com
Mostly people bought DMC threads and wools but they had bits and pieces going back decades that were tucked in drawers. As the shops on the bridge were being gradually closed down to make way for a new development they were pulling out all sorts of things and selling them off. Being on a tight budget, I did the classic thing of buying things because they were reasonable even though I have absolutely no use for them.
However, one day the lady in the shop pulled out a lace bobbin that was about an inch shorter than any other I had except on my travel pillow so I bought this bobbin to use as gimp bobbin for the travel pillow. The lady tried to sell it to me as a time saver as it came with a pre-wound spool on the neck of the bobbin but as the thread looked like DMC 30 but was discoloured I doubted if I would ever use the spool. To be honest I think I really bought it because it was a curiosity.
Strictly speaking this is not an unknown maker as the bobbin clearly says that it is Le Tjevoli but as I have no idea who that it then I think I can say it's unkown.
The label has the following words on it; Le Tjevoli, fuseau bobbin, porte-fil, amovibie. My french is a little rusty but with the help of google translate I can say that this says roughly that it is a ready filled spool of yarn on a bobbin (like I hadn't worked that out). I can find no straight translation for amovibie but amovibile is kind of pushbutton which might explain the top of the bobbin that comes off. I have found a reference to this particular bobbin on google books and if you are interensted then follow this link : http://bit.ly/LeTjevoli. If anyone has any further information to add to this then I would be very interested in hearing from you - do email me at thelacebee@btinternet.com
