I was inspired to learn more about Teneriffe lace by a post on the Craft blog called How to Make a Spider Loom for Lace. Their example didn’t look like any kind of lace I’d seen. I had considered tatting as a craft for this blog (and may yet to get to try it) and I knew that there was a kind of lace one could make using pins, but the idea of a loom for lace was new to me. A bit of Googling turned up Teneriffe lace, also called Polka Spider Web lace.
A bit more Googling about lace blew my mind. I had thought that tatting was the word for making lace. I was very wrong. There are a zillion different kinds of lace. Check this out: The Structures of Antique Lace. Teneriffe and tatting both come under the Other Handmade Lace category, if that helps show how wrong I was.
One other great resource I found for Teneriffe is this awesome book from 1904 called Teneriffe Lace Designs and Instructions. I hope to try some of those designs but right now they all look too daunting!
Wish me luck.
Photo by Emilee Gettle for Craft
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