The Lacis Museum Newsletter
May 14th, 2009
Dear Friends of LMLT,
 
FATHER’S DAY AND HERBERT NEIBLING

Now a time to honor fathers as we celebrate Father’s Day this weekend. While surely outnumbered in the needlework community, many certainly support the traditions and spirit of needle workers, many directly contributing to the creative dimensions that exist in the world of needle and thread. LMLT has found focus on the glories  of lace knitting as exemplified in the astounding productions of Marguerite Shimmons and the creative works of Herbert  Niebling, who we can honor on this weekend as the father of the modern knitted lace movement. His organic designs defy the geometry intrinsic in lace knitting, opening new vistas and attracting a new generation.
 


The enigma surrounding this creator of some of the most significant designs in knitted lace, and who is now recognized as the prominent force in the modern knitted lace movement conjures up wonder and speculation regarding the life of this man. With the help of Buch Verlag Fue die Frau, the publisher of many of his works we offer, for those entrapped in this movement, some details,  based on the archives of his two home towns, Itzehoe (Northern Germany) and Bensheim-Auerbach (German federal state of Hessen).
From Itzehoe
Born: Herbert Richard Niebling, December 29, 1903 in Averlak (German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein; Northern Germany)
Profession: designer
denomination: Protestant
Married to Olga Linda (nee Jehrling) on July 27, 1935  in Brandis (German federal state of Saxony; near Leipzig). Olga’s was born in Brandis on March 11, 1908.
On August 1, 1935 they moved to Itzehoe where they set us a residence at : Große Paaschburg 22 until September 1, 1940 when they left for Bensheim-Auerbach.
From Bensheim-Auerbach
December 20, 1903 is noted as the date of birth and July 28 1935 is noted as the wedding date.
Registered residence in Bensheim-Auerbach on October 1, 1940 as Schloßstraße 29
On October 23, 1940 is was inducted to the Wehrmacht (German armed forces in the Second World War), returning from captivity on June 20, 1945.
On Fenruary 14, 1957 he moved to Freiburg/ Breisgau wherte he established a residence at Schwarzwaldstraße 158
Niebling died in Freiburg in 1966.
In the “Adressbuch der Stadt Bensheim mit den Vor- und Nebenorten 1950” (directory with registration of local companies) there is the following note under the category “Kunstgewerbliche Werkstätten” (means craftwork shops):
“Entwürfe für kunstgestrickte und gehäkelte Decken Herbert und Linda Niebling
Bensheim-Auerbach an der Bergstraße, Schloßstraße 29
Handgestrickte und gestickte Damen- und Kinderkleidung”
This is the original entry respectively the registered business name of Niebling’s company. It translates:
“Designs for lace knitted and crocheted blankets, Herbert and Linda Niebling, Bensheim-Auerbach an der Bergstraße, Schloßstraße 29
Hand-knitted and embroidered women’s and children’s clothing”

Exhibits

“As the Century Turns,” our exhibit featuring scenes from daily life during the Belle Epoch, invites viewers to step into the world of the Gay ‘90s. Emphasizing period clothes along with the lace and linens familiar to people living at the turn of the last century, this exhibit is presented as a series of tableaux. The feel of the different tableaux is lifelike and homey, with the pieces displayed not as artifacts but like pieces from a home. Adding a breath of simulated life are the period wax headed articulated mannequins graciously loaned by Ellen Thompson, a longtime friend of Lacis, a member of the LMLT Board of Directors, doll maker and proprietor of Making Memories Doll Patterns. These lovingly restored mannequins impart lifelike movement to the tableaux and a bit of glamour from the age itself.
 
This lovely and lively exhibit will be available during regular museum hours, from noon to 6 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays, until August 1, 2009. We are always happy to welcome groups, so let us know if you’d like to bring your class or group for a special tour. Please call Erin at the museum shop, (510) 843-7290 to make arrangements.
 
Bobbin Lace

Approaching LMLT’s major exhibit on Bobbin Lace, opening September 26, 2009, we are continuing to offer further understanding of this extraordinary technique by essays from staff and friends.


 
Russia                                                                   Madagascar


Submitted by Ellen Fernandez-Sacco, Ph.D. a Friend and volunteer to LMLT, she surely shares the fascination of the history of lace, discovering and always challenging:

Lace & rumors...about Honiton Lace

Since Mrs. Bury Palliser published her History of Lace in 1865, the claim has circulated that sixteenth century Flemish refugees were responsible for the rise of the Honiton lace industry in England. “ ...indeed, numerous patronymics of Flemish origin appear among the entries in the church registers still preserved in Honiton.” As HJ Yallop’s list of ‘Alleged Flemish names quoted by Mrs. Palliser’ shows, these names appeared in the registers in the early 1600s and 1700s, but their earliest known use in England go back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Worst yet for Mrs. Palliser’s hypothesis is that it’s geographically unlikely-- a ship would have to sail through the Straits of Dover, down the English Channel some 250 miles, bypassing many ports on the way, only to land on an open beach in East Devon. There were indeed refugees in areas without a lace industry, and no refugees where there was one. Early in 1886 an article in the Devon and Exeter Daily Gazette tells of footsore refugees stopping and deciding to stay in Honiton.1 Unsupported by any evidence, the story continues to wend its way through a variety of books.

1HJ Yallop, The History of the Honiton Lace Industry. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1992, 13-15.
Lace beginnings...

From the woven patterns of moresques and fish in fourteenth century Egyptian silks, woodcuts were made and published in Venice & Paris in the first decades of the sixteenth century. These interlocking motifs inspired the patterns of embroidery and laces across Spain, Flanders, England and Italy. Plagarized and adapted they were transformed into woodcuts that circulated in pattern books, and turned into borders of appliqued cloth, outlines of braids or cords, drawnwork, cutwork and ultimately, transformed into needle and bobbin laces.

No specific date can be set for bobbin lace. Its similarity to chess, with rules that govern the movement of pieces and elaborate names for equipment remains a tie to its eastern roots, however tenuous the connection may seem. From passimenterie of the late fifteenth century-- the narrow edge trimming of braided and looped gold and silk threads – emerged the techniques of bobbin lace.1 The woodcuts of Le Pompe, published in Venice in 1560 & 1562 offered geometric patterns (black on white ground) to follow that combined geometric form with plaited braids and cloth stitch, which a skilled hand could puzzle out how to make.

Imported patterns soon led to the development of local variations of styles, which exploded with the increased access to materials. In Switzerland, the first lace book by a woman, RM, notes that Venetian merchants bought bobbin lace there in 1536, and a quarter century later, it went beyond its original use for shirts to collars, sleeves, caps, girdles, bodicefronts, handkerchiefs, table-linen, pillows, bedcovers and other things.2

1 Margaret Abegg, Appropos Patterns for Embroidery, Lace and Woven Textiles. Bern: Abegg-Stiftung, 1977. 35,44, 73

2 Abegg, 78
 
Classes

FELT HAT BLOCKING by Jacqueline Palacios, 2 Saturdays, July 18 and July 25. Jackie discovered millinery in 1982, learning and honing her skills by working with other designers and the SF Opera. In this class you learn to manipulate a raw wool felt hood into a personal creation, exactly sized and shape for a perfect fit..

BOBBIN LACE by Lieve Jerger. From a family dedicated to lace making and known for her innovative approaches, she will share her enthusiasm in a program, early October. She incorporated her wire lace into the illustrations for a delightful tale “The Winged Tiger and The Lace Princess,” which will be available in its second edition. She writes of a bobbin lace class  “with wire for kids, mothers and kids age 7 and up, (boys accepted too).”

A FROCK COAT by Todd Roehrman, a 3 session class with tentative dates of Saturday August 15 and 22 and Wednesday evening August 19.  This will be an intense class, requiring home time and perhaps an additional session, with the focus on the fine art of men’s tailoring.  It would include a complete finishing kit for a mid-19th century frock coat. Todd is a recognized Bay Area Costume Designer and teaches at SFSU.

Details on all classes and registration information will be available on our website at http://lacismuseum.org/classes.html. Registration forms are also available at the Museum shop.
 
Lace Groups at LMLT

LMLT LACE KNITTING GROUP
Lace knitters of all skill levels are invited to join the LMLT Lace Knitters, a flourishing and friendly knitting family that meets once a month to share, show-and-tell, occasionally commiserate, congratulate, and always encourage each other through knitting thicks and thins. Bring along a current project and join us Saturday, August 1 (the first Saturday of every month from 1 to 3. In view of the July 4 Holiday, there will be no July meeting                                                                           

BOBBIN LACE GROUP
Meeting on the third Saturday of each month from 1 - 3, all are welcome to learn, share and encourage. If curiosity persists, we would encourage participation in the more formal bobbin lace classes by Maria Maria Jose Munoz. The monthly group is hosted by Maria and Beth Lysten, a talented and enthusiastic lace maker from South Africa. The group will meet this Saturday, June 20.

 
Details on all groups are available on our website at http://lacismuseum.org/classes.html.

New in the Shop

Returning from the summer needlework market, two items, both from “Clover” must be shared:
Teneriffe Loom: “Clover” calls this a “Hana-Ami” Flower Loom. It consists of 6 different shapes, each shape essentially a stiff rim with upright pegs along the outer edge. You can make flowers using yarns and ribbons, but, after showing the exhibit demonstrator what can be done with fine thread and a needle, she was quickly seduced into the world of teneriffe lace, with her comment the next day...”I was up most of the night playing with this.”

Also new in the arsenal of knitting needles is the new 9 inch Takumi circular bamboo needles, available in 9 sizes  from “0” to “8” These have short needles connected to a cable through a connector with a 45 degree bend.

More in the next newsletter.

... and now the Summer Solstice is celebrated and we can accept being part of all humanity and a moment of universal joy,

Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles
2982 Adeline Street
Berkeley, CA  94703

http://lacismuseum.org/

at Ashby & Adeline St., adjacent to the "Ashby" BART Station
Hours: Monday thru Saturday 12:00 - 6:00 pm
tel: 510-843-7290