Rosaline lace
Rosaline lace is a late 17th-century Venetian needle lace, a late 19th-century bobbin part lace imitation. A Brussels variant with needle lace pearls is called Rosaline Perlée; the variant made in Bruges lacked the pearls. In the 1870s the second French empire collapsed, concurrently fashion changed; the cheaper guipures were affected but the better Brussels laces stayed in demand for wedding trousseaux. Designs and technique however remained much the same. Individuality of lace types decreased and interest for making lace as a hobby increased. In the 1880s the lace industry revived with imitations of old laces. Aalst developed a lace with a technique based on Duchesse lace; the frequent little roses gave the lace its name: Rosaline. The same name has been used for a seventeenth century Venetian needle lace with similar design; the Belgian Rosaline was rediscovered in 1980s. The lace is flexible to changing fashion. Worn and unsold pieces could be reassembled. Characteristic features are the roses with three or five petals arranged in trails.
Unlike the Duchesse, the lace has no gimps. A Brussels variant has needle lace pearls mounted on the hearts of the roses, a Brugges variant lacks the pearls. A special variant connects the flowers with short crinkly edges. Another variant has needle lace fillings; the lace was exclusively made of fine linen threads. A piece of lace may look irregular when different parts were created by different people and number of pairs may vary; the lace requires seven pairs. The parts are worked more or less of tapes in cloth stitch; each part starts and ends with a bundle, a shortcut for starting and tying off each pair individually. Traditionally these bundles are both on the front and on the back of the lace
Honiton lace
Honiton lace is a type of bobbin lace made in Honiton, Devon. Historical Honiton lace designs focused on scrollwork and depictions of natural objects such as flowers and leaves. Honiton lace is a part lace, its ornate sprigs or motifs, complex patterns were created separately and sewn into the net ground of the piece. Common sprigs include daisies, shamrocks, ivy leaves, lilies, convolvulus, briony, antwerp diamonds, trefoils and acorns; the art of making lace is rumored to have been brought to Honiton, England by Flemish refugees in the mid-to-late 16th century. An old tombstone in the town is inscribed with information about one James Rodge, described as a “bone lace seller” who died in 1617. In the early period, sprigs of various designs were worked separately from the net ground by hand put together near the end of production. Handmade Honiton lace became obsolete in light of the invention of machine-made net, much cheaper to produce. Historian Emily Jackson describes the design changes fostered by the convenience of this approach: “There was a curious wave of careless designing and inartistic method during the time of this depression, ugly patterns show ‘turkey tails,’ ‘frying pans,’ and hearts.
Not a leaf, nor a flower, was copied from nature.” Handmade lacework had a resurgence in popularity in the 19th century when Queen Victoria ordered a Honiton lace bridal dress. The revival happened so and demand was so great, that a cheaper-quality lace was produced in large quantities. Due to the massive demand, this cheaper work had simpler designs due to the necessary speed of production. Defining designs of lace at this time were “leaves, scrolls... look as natural as possible.”19th century Honiton lace incorporates a variety of stitches, including: whole stitch, stem stitch, lace stitch, fibre stitch, long plaitings, square plaitings, broad/cucumber plaitings, Honiton ground, star ground, Dame Joan ground, buckle stitch, Flemish stitch, turn-stitch, chequer stitch, fibre stitch, Antwerp diamond stitch
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is the twisting together of drawn-out strands of fibers to form yarn, is a major part of the textile industry. The yarn is used to create textiles, which are used to make clothing and many other products. There are several industrial processes available to spin yarn, as well as hand-spinning techniques where the fiber is drawn out and wound onto a bobbin; the yarn issuing from the drafting rollers passes through a thread-guide, round a traveller, free to rotate around a ring, onto a tube or bobbin, carried on a spindle, the axis of which passes through a center of the ring. The spindle is driven and the traveller is dragged around a ring by the loop of yarn passing round it. If the drafting rollers were stationary, the angular velocity of the traveller would be the same as that of the spindle and each revolution of the spindle would cause one turn of twist to be inserted in the loop of yarn betweem the roller nip and the traveller. In spinning, however the yarn is continually issuing from the rollers of the drafting system and, under these cirmunstances, the angular velocity of the traveller is less than that of the spindle by an amount, just sufficientto allow the yarn to be wound onto the bobbin at the same rate as that at which it issues from the drafting rollers.
Each revolution of the traveller now inserts one turn of twist into the loop of yarn between the roller nip and the traveller but, in equilibrium, the number of turns of twist in the loop of yarn remains constant as twisted yarn is passing through the traveller at a corresponding rate. Artificial fibres are made by extruding a polymer through a spinneret into a medium where it hardens. Wet spinning uses a coagulating medium. In dry spinning, the polymer is contained in a solvent. In melt spinning the extruded polymer sets. All these fibres will be of great length kilometers long. Natural fibres are from minerals, or plants; these vegetable fibres can come from the stem or the leaf. Without exception, many processes are needed before a clean staple is obtained. With the exception of silk, each of these fibres is short, being only centimetres in length, each has a rough surface that enables it to bond with similar staples. Artificial fibres can be processed as long fibres or batched and cut so they can be processed like a natural fibre.
Ring spinning is one of the most common spinning methods in the world. Other systems include air-jet and open-end spinning, a technique where the staple fiber is blown by air into a rotor and attaches to the tail of formed yarn, continually being drawn out of the chamber. Other methods of break spinning use electrostatic forces; the processes to make short-staple yarn are blending, carding, pin-drafting, spinning, and—if desired—plying and dyeing. In long staple spinning, the process may start with stretch-break of tow, a continuous "rope" of synthetic fiber. In open-end and air-jet spinning, the roving operation is eliminated; the spinning frame winds yarn around a bobbin. After this step the yarn is wound to a cone for knitting or weaving. In a spinning mule, the roving is pulled off bobbins and sequentially fed through rollers operating at several different speeds, thinning the roving at a consistent rate; the yarn is twisted through the spinning of the bobbin as the carriage moves out, is rolled onto a cop as the carriage returns.
Mule spinning produces a finer thread than ring spinning. Spinning by the mule machine is an intermittent process as the frame advances and returns, it is the descendant of a device invented in 1779 by Samuel Crompton, produces a softer, less twisted thread, favored for fines and for weft. The ring was a descendant of the Arkwright water frame of 1769 and creates yarn in a continuous process; the yarn is coarser, has a greater twist, is stronger, making it more suitable for warp. Ring spinning is slow due to the distance. Similar methods have improved on this including bobbin and cap spinning; the pre-industrial techniques of hand spinning with spindle or spinning wheel continue to be practiced as a handicraft or hobby, enable wool or unusual vegetable and animal staples to be used. Hand spinning was an important cottage industry in medieval Europe, where the wool spinners would provide enough yarn to service the needs of the men who operated the looms, or to sell on in the putting-out system.
After the invention of the spinning jenny water frame the demand was reduced by mechanisation. Its technology was specialised and costly, employed water as motive power. Spinning and weaving as cottage industries were displaced by dedicated manufactories, developed by industrialists and their investors; the British government was protective of the technology and restricted its export. After World War I the colonies where the cotton was grown started to purchase and manufacture significant quantities of cotton spinning machinery; the next breakthrough was with the move over to break or open-end spinning, the adoption of artificial fibres. By most production had moved to Asia. During the Industrial Revolution, spinners and sweepers were e
Almshouse
An almshouse is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community. They are targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain forms of previous employment, or their widows, at elderly people who can no longer pay rent, are maintained by a charity or the trustees of a bequest. Almshouses were formed as extensions of the church system and were adapted by local officials and authorities. Many almshouses are European Christian institutions. Alms are, in the Christian tradition, money or services donated to support the indigent. Almshouses were established from the 10th century in Britain, to provide a place of residence for poor and distressed people, they were sometimes called the residents bedesmen or bedeswomen. Bede is the Anglo-Saxon word for prayer and the alms-men and women were obliged to pray for the founder of the charity; the first recorded almshouse was founded in York by King Athelstan. In the Middle Ages, the majority of European hospitals functioned as almshouses.
Many of the medieval almshouses in England were established with the aim of benefiting the soul of the founder or their family, they incorporated a chapel. As a result, most were regarded as chantries and were dissolved during the Reformation, under an act of 1547. Almshouses have charitable status and aim to support the continued independence of their residents. There is an important delineation between almshouses and other forms of sheltered housing in that almshouse residents have no security of tenure, being dependent upon the goodwill of the administering trustees. In 1269 or 1270 an almshouse was established in Stavanger as the first known in Norway; the English tradition of almshouses was introduced to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by its founder, William Penn. The Maryland legislature created almshouses in Anne Arundel County, financed by property taxes on landowners throughout the state. Massachusetts had a long tradition of almshouses. In the United States, aid tended to be limited to the elderly and disabled, children had to sleep in the same rooms as adults.
The first almshouse in the United States history was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1622. The original Boston Almshouse was burned down in 1682 and was rebuilt away from the heart of Boston nearly a decade later. In 1884 the statistical analysis of the Massachusetts almshouses showed four in the city of Boston and 225 almshouses throughout the state; these almshouses housed nearly 7,000 people. Of these residents, 700 were believed to have a mental illness. Half of these almshouses did not house children. Upon entering the Almshouses in Connecticut, patients were whipped ten times. There were similar institutions developed from 1725-1773 in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York. At the Pennsylvania Hospital, some "lunatics" were chained to a cellar wall or made to wear a primitive straitjacket. Before the American Civil War, local officials regulated almshouses and did not ensure the people inside them were being cared for in the proper way or given the time they needed for help, it was not until the 1860s that more progressive states such as New York began to create boards that regulated and reported on almshouses.
The Newark almshouse opened in September 1878 as a branch of the Syracuse State School. It was located on 104 acres of land within the town of Newark, New Jersey and held around 853 patients; the nine dormitory buildings that housed the patients were able to hold anywhere from 45 to 130 people. There was a small hospital within the almshouse that could hold up to 30 patients. There were not many employees, only about 110, to take care of the hundreds of young women admitted to the almshouse. Patients were committed to the Newark State School by superintendents of the poor as well as judges who declared them insane or feeble-minded in court. Many of the patients of the New York Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women were falsely considered to be mentally ill. Mary Lake was the daughter of a young woman, sentenced to 10 years in a state prison. Mary and her other siblings were put into almshouses, she was committed to the almshouse in Newark as feeble-minded. It was not until years where she was pronounced not mentally ill and was able to leave the almshouse.
Throughout the 19th century almshouses were a last resort for those who were poor and elderly. Residents experienced mistreatment and inhumanity; as almshouses continued into the 19th century, activists such as Dorothea Dix fought for institutional reform. Dix sought to remove children, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled from all almshouses and increase the number of institutions and asylums for those to reside in; as her movement gained momentum, she played a vital role in the establishment and expansion of over 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill. Her efforts removed specific groups from almshouses. One of the biggest problems with almshouses is that they were self-sustaining, they were costly to run, the capacity of the inmates to pay for their own keep by working at the farm, or working at the almshouse itself, was overestimated. There were not enough staff, facilities were not kept up, the poor kept coming. By the end of the 1800s, almshouses began to be replaced by institutions.
Almshouses are multiple small terraced houses or apartments providing accommodation for small numbers of residents. Some 2,600 almshouses continue to be operated in the UK, providing 30,000 dwellings for
Maltese lace
Maltese lace is a style of bobbin lace made in Malta. It is a guipure style of lace, it is worked as a continuous width on a tall, upright lace pillow. Bigger pieces are made of two or more parts sewn together; the Lace Pillow in Malta is known as "Trajbu" pronounced as try-boo, while the Bobbins are called "Combini" pronounced as "chom-beany", this type of Lace making is popular in Malta's Sister Island of Gozo, found to the North of the main Island. Lace made in Malta was needle lace, from the 16th to the 19th century, when the economic depression in the islands nearly led to the extinction of lacemaking there, but in the mid 1800s, Lady Hamilton Chichester sent lacemakers from Genoa to Malta. They used the old needle lace patterns and turned them into bobbin lace, quicker, it was not long after its introduction that the Maltese lace developed its own style from Genoese lace. Maltese lace was shown at The Great Exhibition of 1851 and it became popular in Britain; the style was copied by lacemakers in the English Midlands, it was one of the sources for Bedfordshire lace.
Lace is still made in Malta today. To ensure the survival of the craft, lace making is taught in Government trade schools for girls, while private bodies such as the Society of Arts and Commerce hold special evening classes. Maltese lace has the following characteristics which are useful for identification: It is made from cream silk. Black silk was used in the past. Linen thread was used. There is the 8 pointed Maltese cross as part of the pattern, worked in whole or cloth stitch; the pattern may have worked leaves known as “wheat ears” or “oats”. These are plump and rounded in shape, rather than the long narrow leaves of other types of bobbin lace
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
Ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks and teeth of animals, that consists of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is the same, regardless of the species of origin; the trade in certain teeth and tusks other than elephant is widespread. It has been valued since ancient times in art or manufacturing for making a range of items from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans and joint tubes. Elephant ivory is the most important source, but ivory from mammoth, hippopotamus, sperm whale, killer whale and wart hog are used as well. Elk have two ivory teeth, which are believed to be the remnants of tusks from their ancestors; the national and international trade in ivory of threatened species such as African and Asian elephants is illegal. The word ivory derives from the ancient Egyptian âb, âbu, through the Latin ebor- or ebur. Both the Greek and Roman civilizations practiced ivory carving to make large quantities of high value works of art, precious religious objects, decorative boxes for costly objects.
Ivory was used to form the white of the eyes of statues. There is some evidence of either walrus ivory used by the ancient Irish. Solinus, a Roman writer in the 3rd century claimed that the Celtic peoples in Ireland would decorate their sword-hilts with the'teeth of beasts that swim in the sea'. Adomnan of Iona wrote a story about St Columba giving a sword decorated with carved ivory as a gift that a penitent would bring to his master so he could redeem himself from slavery; the Syrian and North African elephant populations were reduced to extinction due to the demand for ivory in the Classical world. The Chinese have long valued ivory for utilitarian objects. Early reference to the Chinese export of ivory is recorded after the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian ventured to the west to form alliances to enable the eventual free movement of Chinese goods to the west. Southeast Asian kingdoms included tusks of the Indian elephant in their annual tribute caravans to China. Chinese craftsmen carved ivory to make everything from images of deities to the pipe stems and end pieces of opium pipes.
The Buddhist cultures of Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, traditionally harvested ivory from their domesticated elephants. Ivory was prized for containers due to its ability to keep an airtight seal, it was commonly carved into elaborate seals utilized by officials to "sign" documents and decrees by stamping them with their unique official seal. In Southeast Asian countries, where Muslim Malay peoples live, such as Malaysia and the Philippines, ivory was the material of choice for making the handles of kris daggers. In the Philippines, ivory was used to craft the faces and hands of Catholic icons and images of saints prevalent in the Santero culture. Tooth and tusk ivory can be carved into a vast variety of objects. Examples of modern carved ivory objects are okimono, jewelry, flatware handles, furniture inlays, piano keys. Additionally, warthog tusks, teeth from sperm whales and hippos can be scrimshawed or superficially carved, thus retaining their morphologically recognizable shapes.
Ivory usage in the last thirty years has moved towards mass production of souvenirs and jewelry. In Japan, the increase in wealth sparked consumption of solid ivory hanko – name seals – which before this time had been made of wood; these hanko can be carved out in a matter of seconds using machinery and were responsible for massive African elephant decline in the 1980s, when the African elephant population went from 1.3 million to around 600,000 in ten years. Prior to the introduction of plastics, ivory had many ornamental and practical uses because of the white color it presents when processed, it was used to make cutlery handles, billiard balls, piano keys, Scottish bagpipes, buttons and a wide range of ornamental items. Synthetic substitutes for ivory in the use of most of these items have been developed since 1800: the billiard industry challenged inventors to come up with an alternative material that could be manufactured. Ivory can be taken from dead animals – however, most ivory came from elephants that were killed for their tusks.
For example, in 1930 to acquire 40 tons of ivory required the killing of 700 elephants. Other animals which are now endangered were preyed upon, for example, which have hard white ivory prized for making artificial teeth. In the first half of the 20th century, Kenyan elephant herds were devastated because of demand for ivory, to be used for piano keys. During the Art Deco era from 1912 to 1940, dozens of European artists used ivory in the production of chryselephantine statues. Two of the most frequent users of ivory in their sculptured artworks were Ferdinand Preiss and Claire Colinet. Owing to the rapid decline in the populations of the animals that produce it, the importation and sale of ivory in many countries is banned or restricted. In the ten years preceding a decision in 1989 by CITES to ban international trade in African elephant ivory, the population of African elephants declined from 1.3 million to around 600,000. It was found by investigators from the Environmental Investigation Agency that CITES sales of stockpiles from Singapore and
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