Study Box - Saba Lace

Here's two examples. That will have to do until the Box is completed.

http://www.heritageshoppe.com/temp/sabalace.jpg

And an unusual example of the stitching:
http://www.heritageshoppe.com/temp/sabalace2.jpg

This is *very* fine work. My info on it is downstairs, but I'll post
more tomorrow.

Dianne

Ok. I had to do a google search . . . because I had no idea where Saba
was, although I had a clue from the letter sent.

It's an island in the Caribbean off the coast of Central America
(Netherlands antilles and originally I was trying to find it in Norway
grin, but I'm confused because it's part of the Netherlands antilles,
which is off the coast of Venezuela.

Anyway, Gladys sent a little history:
"In the late 1800's a young girl from Saba went to Caracas, Venezuela to
school and was taught by the nuns how to do this kind of lace work, it
was called Spanish work. After she was finished with her education she
returned back to Saba.

"She then taught it to other Saban ladies and over the years that's how
it got the name Saba lace. A lot of the ladies made their own patterns.
It is really drawn thread work . . . mostly made on linen which we
have to order from Ireland and Belgium and sometimes can be very expensive.

You can see Glady's shop he
http://www.sabatourism.com/lacesamples2.html

and you can see a bit about Saba he
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/...k/geos/nt.html

And I think if you read the history of the area, you can see what it is
so "Italian" in flavor. grin

I was intrigued with the ovals, which I'd never seen before.

The piece she sent is quite fine, and I'd like to know what thread she
used, since it looks finer and slightly different than broder 40, and
has quite a sheen to it.

The workmanship is impeccable.

I am *very* curious about how this got to South America. Gladys says
she has a degree in embroidery and taught it in school for 35 years.
She also has a book on saba lace.

She sent this as a gift for our Study Box, and I was just flabergassted
that someone from around the world would do that. I was willing to pay
for a small sample, and she kept ignoring those emails and yesterday the
piece just "arrived".

Dianne

Dianne Lewandowski wrote in message ...
Ok. I had to do a google search . . . because I had no idea where Saba
was, although I had a clue from the letter sent.

It's an island in the Caribbean off the coast of Central America
(Netherlands antilles and originally I was trying to find it in Norway
grin, but I'm confused because it's part of the Netherlands antilles,
which is off the coast of Venezuela.

Anyway, Gladys sent a little history:
"In the late 1800's a young girl from Saba went to Caracas, Venezuela to
school and was taught by the nuns how to do this kind of lace work, it
was called Spanish work. After she was finished with her education she
returned back to Saba.

"She then taught it to other Saban ladies and over the years that's how
it got the name Saba lace. A lot of the ladies made their own patterns.
It is really drawn thread work . . . mostly made on linen which we
have to order from Ireland and Belgium and sometimes can be very expensive.

You can see Glady's shop he
http://www.sabatourism.com/lacesamples2.html

and you can see a bit about Saba he
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/...k/geos/nt.html

And I think if you read the history of the area, you can see what it is
so "Italian" in flavor. grin

I was intrigued with the ovals, which I'd never seen before.

The piece she sent is quite fine, and I'd like to know what thread she
used, since it looks finer and slightly different than broder 40, and
has quite a sheen to it.

The workmanship is impeccable.

I am *very* curious about how this got to South America. Gladys says
she has a degree in embroidery and taught it in school for 35 years.
She also has a book on saba lace.

She sent this as a gift for our Study Box, and I was just flabergassted
that someone from around the world would do that. I was willing to pay
for a small sample, and she kept ignoring those emails and yesterday the
piece just "arrived".

Dianne

Hi,
I happened to read your mail about Saba. It doesn't surprise me at
all that you received this gift, Saba is like that, VERY special
people. Actually, the island is in the northern Caribbean, you get
there on a small plane from St. Maarten, landing on an airstrip about
the size of an aircraft carrier. It's like a visit back to the 50's,
if you know what I mean.

I remember reading somewhere that during WWII, the women would send
their lace samples to addresses taken from the canned goods boxes that
were shipped in, hoping to make a sale.

The history of this tiny island is most interesting, and you can get
some information on http://www.sabatourism.com/.

Sheryll