This week finds me continuing my exploration of the doily form. Still experimenting with deconstructing and reconstructing vintage lace and doilies, I am also fooling around with ways of creating new doilies in unconventional ways. The orange-ish colored doily is just made up of small bits of dupioni silk and sewing thread. It was free-motioned embroidered on a water soluble base, so the end result is a very sturdy, but open, lace like structure. It was a little time consuming for such a small piece, (apx. 5" x 5") but I'm really happy with how it turned out, and the way the light shines through it when you hold it up.
And just for the record, I realize that I truly dislike the word "doily"! I have been collecting them for years and never realized, until I recently started typing blog entries about them, that I had such a distaste for the name. I have no idea why, certainly don't think it's important enough to go into therapy for! I suppose it just sounds so frivolous. I mean think about all the woman who spent countless hours crocheting and tatting. And yes, one could argue that they are primarily decorative, but back in their hay-day they served an important job of keeping the mens gross hair gel from permanently staining the upholstered furniture. Maybe that's where the "oily" part comes from? And maybe the "D" stands for "dirt". Okay this is starting to make sense to me now! A doily's original purpose was suppose to be a pretty way of catching dirt and oil from hubby's head, and preserving the life of your furniture. Who would want to call such a pretty object a "dirtoil"? That's a much more objectionable name! I now see that the name "Doily" is actually the perfect blend of Dirt, OIL, and prettY...
D + OIL + Y = DOILY! (Yes, it is scary how my brain wanders off on these rather unimportant matters, and if you hung in this far, bless you! I am much more at peace with the word "doily" now!)
