A Walk Through The Universe: White, week 3

The weeks go by way too quickly and I'm meandering slowly on this walk through the universe....so much to investigate just thinking about white and alas, so little time.   I'm afraid I never do a topic justice, as I think of it too late in the week to really have time to investigate.  I thought about lace as the topic for the week...when lace comes to my mind, it is usually white.  I've always been intrigued with the patterns and the intricate detail found in lace and never could wrap my mind around how it is made.  Even though most of it is machine made these days, it has a long history and yet it seems the term "lace" is rather generic and just refers to an "open work" fabric that has open holes made by either by hand or machine.  Well, that describes a lot of things and in fact, a list three columns long of the various kinds of lace can be found here. I had no idea! Even the Wikipedia definition found here lists the following: needle lace, cutwork, bobbin lace, tape lace, knotted lace, crocheted lace, knitted lace, machine made and guipure.  And what is tatting?  I feel as if I've just come upon a mansion, one with a long history and stories to tell, deep in the woods, but I just don't have the time to wind my way up to the door and really investigate.  I'll come back later, as I still don't really have the vaguest idea how these delicate patterns are made. Maybe some of you know something about the history of lace, but I know I'm more intrigued than ever.  I found a wealth of images on flickr, including collections of historic postcards of groups of women engaged in lacemaking, old master paintings which feature people wearing lace and beautiful examples of lace being made and collected by people the world over.  When I went on a search of lace on etsy, I found a great many examples of lace, both contemporary and vintage.  I was more interested in the vintage lace and was particularly struck by the beautiful photographs of lace in this shop, OhFaro. I've included just a few examples from her shop below.  She has this vintage lace and a lot of other wonderful items worth perusing!

Would love to know more about lace, so if anyone has any great links or sources of information, I'd be happy to have you share it here!  Thanks so much...see you tomorrow!