Laci's Museum of Lace and Textiles

Friday night, my friend, Bob Haven, asked me and a former classmate of mine, to join him at a lecture at Lacis in Berkeley.  Lacis is apparently known throughout the U.S. and possibly the world.  They're probably most famous for their historic collection of lace, lacemaking classes and lace making equipment and supplies.  They also seem to have a large stock of other equipment and supplies for other dying needlecrafts.  For example, I counted at least ten different types of tambour hooks and most needlework stores don't have the slightest idea what a tambour hook is!

Anyhow, this past Friday evening, Lacis had asked my friend Bob to give a lecture on the tambour embroidery technique.  Bob had asked my friend Sandra and I, to show some examples of our work and talk about our experiences with tambour embroidery since we're former students of his.  The lecture was tied to a beginning tambour embroidery class that Bob was teaching this weekend at Lacis.  The highlight for me was getting to see some examples from Lacis famous collection of historic clothing.  While the picture quality isn't terrific (sorry, I only had my cell phone with me), I think they're worth sharing anyway.

Closeup detail of a floral beaded embroidery hem on a 1920's dress.  Part of the collection of Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles.

Beaded bodice on a 1920's dress from the historic collection at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles.

Metallic thread, bead and sequin embroidery on silk organza by Bob Haven.

Interesting bead embroidery technique on a 1920's dress from the collection of Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles.  

3 dimensional bead embroidery.  2 bugle beads are threaded and the needle goes back down, right next to where it came up from the fabric.  This causes the bugles to stand up on end and creates an interesting texture

Bead embroidery on velvet 1920's evening coat with fur collar.  From the collections of Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles.

Beaded and embroidered 1920's flapper dress from the collection of Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles.  This dress was embroidered all over to resemble lace, but all of the texture you see is actually hand embroidered!  It was truly stunning.

This was very difficult to photograph because the metallic sequins and beads kept reflecting off the flash.  This is the hem of the dress pictured above.  From the collection of Lacis Museum of Lace and  Textiles.