Bibilla Knotted Lace Flowers brings to a modern audience a form of lace that is believed to have originated in antiquity and that has been practised in many countries of the eastern Mediterranean.
Intricate, beautiful, and delicate, the ancient craft of knotted lace handwork has traditionally passed from person to person. This simple needle lace involves making loops of different sizes, shapes, and lengths and then combining them to form extraordinarily graceful designs. Here are easy to follow techniques and patterns, taught to the author by her Greek mother-in law, for pretty lacy doilies, collars, Christening gowns, and more--all surely destined to become treasured heirlooms in the years to come.
The history of the Borris Lace has never been published. Here is a celebration of the old techniques and characteristics of the lace, wit a number of patterns adapted for modern use.
Once used primarily for fishing, netting now works beautifully as a base for filet lace. While many lacemakers use commercially available varieties, Margaret Morgan wanted unique sizes and colors. So she began to make her own. Here she explains the equipment she uses and the traditional techniques shes gathered from old source material, and provides 40 patterns with instructions for creating different shapes and edgings. Use the lace for scarves, shawls, place mats, doilies, and even miniature items for a dolls house.
Handy reference of more than 400 lace-related terms (Florentine knots, lappets, spangles, reticella, honiton, Tuscan filet, etc.) plus discussions of the origin, nomenclature, dating, and development of more controversial lace forms. Over 250 illustrations depict such lovely creations as Queen Victoria's wedding veil and the bridal tulle worn by Diana, Princess of Wales.
This book brings together twenty essays on diverse topics in the history and science of knots. It is divided into five parts, which deal respectively with knots in prehistory and antiquity, non-European traditions, working knots, the developing science of knots, and decorative and other aspects of knots.Its authors include archaeologists who write on knots found in digs of ancient sites (one describes the knots used by the recently discovered Ice Man); practical knotters who have studied the history and uses of knots at sea, for fishing and for various life support activities; a historian of lace; a computer scientist writing on computer classification of doilies; and mathematicians who describe the history of knot theories from the eighteenth century to the present day.In view of the explosion of mathematical theories of knots in the past decade, with consequential new and important scientific applications, this book is timely in setting down a brief, fragmentary history of mankind's oldest and most useful technical and decorative device — the knot.
E. H. Gombrich's Little History of the World, though written in 1935, has become one of the treasures of historical writing since its first publication in English in 2005. The Yale edition alone has now sold over half a million copies, and the book is available worldwide in almost thirty languages. Gombrich was of course the best-known art historian of his time, and his text suggests illustrations on every page. This illustrated edition of the Little History brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind's eye as he wrote the book. The two hundred illustrations—most of them in full color—are not simple embellishments, though they are beautiful. They emerge from the text, enrich the author's intention, and deepen the pleasure of reading this remarkable work. For this edition the text is reset in a spacious format, flowing around illustrations that range from paintings to line drawings, emblems, motifs, and symbols. The book incorporates freshly drawn maps, a revised preface, and a new index. Blending high-grade design, fine paper, and classic binding, this is both a sumptuous gift book and an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history.
Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.