Point Lace.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10604, 5 November 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

Point Lace.

One of the most interesting things shown at the- recent Arts and Crafts display was an exhibit of point lace sent from Tasmania. The lace was in itself beautifully worked, but that was one of the least attractive of its features. What mostly distinguished it from other lace work of a'more or less like kind was the charm-of'the .'original design made use of, which were adapted from Australian foliage. No one could fail to be struck with the graceful arrangement of the long slender gum leaves, which wore faithfully reproduced in braid, and also a truly uniform variety of stitchery. There is a restless tendency in most amateur rjoint-lace workers to show how many distinct stitches they can produce in a quite small piece of work. This, however, is- in itself a wrong plan, for in examples of antique Honiton, Brussels, and -Venetian.':.'point the regular; and appropriate stitches help to set the standard of each different variety. In the Tasmanian specimen this point was kept well in mind, and the stitches in each design were thoroughly in keeping. A pattern of fern fronds was another original idea, and the native fuchsia was also cleverly and characteristically introduced. Of course, this -Australian point laeo is quite distinct from Mrs Field's Australian crochet lace, for her beautiful productions are the outcome of performance with a fine crochet hook and cotton, whereas the point lace is an original and appropriate development of an old-world" art.