My involvement with lace started in 1985
after reading an article in The Daily Telegraph about
Batsford lacemaking books. Having first learnt my craft
from the aforementioned books, I enrolled for the City &
Guilds Pilot Scheme in Creative Studies part 1 (Lacemaking) in
1987 at North Cheshire College under the tutelage of Jane
Rushworth Mackenzie. My C&G research project on the use of the computer in lacemaking resulted in a range of computer plotted grounds and fillings for bobbin lace design. Upon commencing the part 2 course in 1989, it was suggested by several fellow students that many of the grids that had been produced would prove useful to other lacemakers. Hence Plotadot was launched in 1990 as a small mail order outlet for the dotted grids. The name Plot-a-dot was adopted as being appropriately descriptive of the nature of the enterprise as the dots were produced using an HP Plotter. The design of the company logo was based on the carousel which holds the plotter pens. The original list of grids grew as lacemakers wrote to Plotadot with various requests and suggestions, and there are now sets varying from traditional Bucks point and Torchon grids, circles and ellipses of different sizes, to the more creative and experimental. At the local print company where the sets are copied, I have become known as Mrs Dot!
I was awarded the 1992/93 Lace Guild Bursary to further research the use of computers and image processing in lacemaking.
In 1993, the development of a new style of lacemaking, Charted Bobbin Lace, resulted in Plotadot diversifying into supplying starter packs and card kits for this type of lace, yet another project which arose out of C&G. The part 2 syllabus includes filet (darned) lace, which fostered the idea of working this type of pattern with bobbins. With the success of the straight version of the lace, 1995 saw the evolution of a circular interpretation of the lace in the form of flower roundel kits and fan designs. Next came the production of larger scale items in the form of cushion kits followed by beaded amulet purses and earrings.
1997 the planning began for CD2000 a lacemaking project to celebrate the Millennium.
Currently I am the freelance Editor of Lace, the quarterly magazine and newsletter of The Lace Guild.
In 1999/2000 I undertood another Lace Guild Bursary to study knitted lace.