Braid lace is the name for lace made with a
bobbin-lace braid, and usually with fillings added, either after
the braid is made, or at the same time as the braid is
worked. 
Bedfordshire lace is a continuous lace. It was
traditionally worked in strips though other shapes such as mats
and dress decorations were made and certainly modern lace-makers
continue to extend the variety of shapes and motifs.
Characteristics of this lace are a plaited headside (9-pin
edging in variations), tallies (square or petal shaped), plaited
legs (with or without picots), trails, Bedfordshire spiders and
a variation of footsides. This type of lace is derived
from the Maltese and/or Cluny laces of the 19th century. Until
this date, Bedfordshire laces contained similar techniques to
Bucks Point. Bedfordshire-Maltese lace was made to try to
compete with the growing popularity of machine-made laces.
It was quicker to make than the East Midlands laces, ie
Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire. It was a bolder lace
which meant that the designs could still be seen across the
increasing widths of the Victorian hooped dresses.
Braid Lace
Braid lace is the name for lace made with a
bobbin-lace braid, and usually with fillings added, either after
the braid is made, or at the same time as the braid is
worked.
There are many variations of Braid Lace, and many Continental laces are made using braids, especially Russian and Czech laces.
However in its finest form, Honiton and Brussels are Braid Laces, with complex fillings added later, sometimes in needlelace. Milanese Lace was developed with patterned braids using scrolls and floral designs, and simple fillings.
Some of the earliest bobbin-laces were made
using braids, and were often for Church use, or furnishings. In
the 16th and early 17th centuries many large collars were made
in Braid Lace, and can be seen in portraits of the time.
Carrickmackenzie
This is a very contemporary development in
lacemaking created by Jane Rushworth Mackenzie, a well-known
British lace designer and teacher. She greatly admired
advanced floral Bedfordshire patterns, but decided the designs
could be worked in easier lacemaking/embroidery techniques for
less experienced bobbin lacemakers.
Jane decided to combine Carrickmacross for the more solid areas of the design with Bedfordshire-type edgings and fillings. Needlelace cordonnets, couronnes and medallions can be used as extra embellishments.
As it was Jane's intention to create a more textural lace, she thought the technique lent itself to trying out other textural and coloured threads.
Carrickmackenzie is truly a lace for the start of the new
Millennium.
ABC(2) —
Carrickmacross, Charted Bobbin Lace, Cluny
Lace — what is lace?
CD2000 — homepage