Harrison woman works to sustain lace-making art
Posted on Monday, October 6, 2008
HARRISON — Emily Woodard’s skilled hands moved around the smoother hands of a young girl, demonstrating an ancient craft, passing along knowledge that has been transferred from person to person over hundreds of years.
In the display building at the Northwest Arkansas District Fair last week, Woodard spent a few minutes showing Laura Ogden, 8, of Combs the old, old craft of weaving bobbin lace.
As Laura sat at a small table topped with a special, firm round pillow with a work of lace in progress pinned to it, her new teacher showed her how to move the wooden bobbins, each with white thread attached, to form the lace.
“I encourage people to try it,” Woodard said. “I’ve even had men try it. Once in Eureka Springs, an electrical engineer watched me and wanted to try it. He picked it up so fast.”
Woodard first saw someone making bobbin lace at a Renaissance Fair and was fascinated, she said.
An accomplished needleworker, she already knew how to knit, crochet, quilt, tat and embroider.
“This is the most challenging,” she said. “It’s really detailed. I can only do maybe an inch an hour.
“ I’ve been doing this about seven years, and I’m still learning. I never get bored. I’m always learning new stitches and new types of lace.”
She said she tries to work on her lace a couple of times a week.
Because there is no group of bobbin lacemakers in the immediate area, Woodard drives to Springdale for meetings of the Dogwood Lace Guild.
Bobbin lace also is called “pillow lace” or “bone lace,” because the early bobbins were made of bone ivory.
In 16 th-century Italy, bobbin lace evolved from “passementerie,” or braid-making.
Because it was easy to learn and the tools and materials needed were inexpensive, women throughout Europe took up bobbin lace-making as a way of earning income from their homes.
The craft also was done often in charity schools and convents.
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