"Lace is as much about the space between the threads as it is about the threads themselves." ~Lori Howe. (1949-January 7, 2016)
With deepest regard, I convey what I learned only this morning (5/1/16), Lorraine 'Lori' (Giroux) Howe passed away early this year, at the age of 66, after a lingering illness. She is noted in this week's IOLI fb pg. Her pioneering fete of bring a vast knowledge base and gallery of samples to the internet reached far beyond her imaginings. Beyond the trade of laces in which the world's indsutry swim, many thousands of guests to 'LaceFairy' found her pages a gift - to hobbyist, artisan, expert collector and curator alike. Walking her pages and discovering each sample's nuances spoke to us all of folks, no different than ourselves, through the ages. From cottage industry to royalty - to today, We see her iimpact in guilds, textile industry, academic archival reference, civic programs, county fairs, and globally online - even reaching auction forums such as ebay. As with any practitioner of an expertise, she would have been pleased to know her contribution was valuable to those who know 'the price of lace, as well as it's value'. Ms. Howe's acument has become our legacy, and she has firmly placed her baton in our hands. Let us rest our bobbins and needles in her memory a moment - and then with her same vigour, cross and twist them.
(A google of 'Lori Howe Lace Fairy' will yield many guilds, dot com's, and dot org's for those wanting other lace ID resources. for tatted items, try georgia seitz, for a huge free pdf library of vtg books and texts, see On-Line Digital Archive Univ AZ Griswold. Also see the (previously yahoo egroup) antiquepatternlibrary-dot-org for a thriving pdf-inages-books-history vtg resource. BLEN is international, LinkedIn offers locality based niches as well as searchable organizations, as do all social media networks. DorisHale aka ebay-dhale123eme.)
I had no idea. That's a shame. Something must have happened. I hope it turns up again.
