CHESHAM
When I got engaged the first thing Ann and Frances said was what sort of lace do you want to make for your wedding dress?
They came to the wedding and took photos. When I was heavily pregnant, but still 2 weeks to go, they brought me cups of tea – little did anyone know that I would have delivered by coffee break the next morning!
I continued to go to class, but to a morning one, the pram beside me and more than a few willing hands to pick up the baby if needed. She attended her first Lace Day with me at the age of 3 months – the Wigginton ladies kept telling me to go and look at the stands and enjoy yourself!
Second baby and we were shoppers only at her first Lace Day at only 3 weeks!
A few years later, the Chesham Young Lacemakers needed a new Tutor and I was asked by Daphne if I would like the challenge – I accepted. But I also realised that if in the future I wished to teach adults too, I needed some help. So I signed up to do the City & Guilds Teaching Certificate.
Jump forward another 15 years and we had to move south to Hampshire. I realised I had been spoilt for the choice of classes to attend in the area where I had lived for 40 years. There were no adverts, no posters in the library and no websites about lace classes to be found – although I soon discovered that there are a lot of self-help groups.
In 2009, just a year after moving, I set up a class at my home and we have gone from strength to strength ever since.
I hope that you enjoy looking at this site and reading about what we do.
Before embarking on the formidable task of teaching, I spent 10 or so years learning from Ann Cope and Frances Goodwin who ran classes in Chesham, Buckinghamshire (in the 1980’s & 1990’s). Classes are still running in Chesham and so are many others in the area.
I very quickly learned that if I showed commitment to attend and enthusiasm to learn, that I was being carried along a path where I moved quite quickly from Torchon to Beds and then onto Bucks and Honiton. I had not been learning Bucks lace for very long when I was encouraged to make some lace for my wedding dress.
Before I was even married I was booked onto a weekend course in Rugby to learn Honiton with Loretta Clark! The shell was the only piece I have ever made in Honiton lace.
I attended the Monday evening class the night before my first child was born. A few weeks later I was trudging up White Hill to the Wednesday morning class with the pram and of course my pillow!
I did not allow family life to interrupt my lacemaking, however, it did change the frequency with which I could take time out to do it. I attended a monthly class, Northchurch Lacemakers, where I was very fortunate to meet teachers of Bedfordshire lace, like Margaret Turner.
In 1994-95 I was given the opportunity to take on the Chesham Young Lacemakers group on a Friday afternoon. I then decided I would like to return to College to do the C & G Teaching Certificate, which would help give me the confidence I felt I needed to be able to teach adults as well as the children. I stayed with the Young Lacemakers for 15 years and we celebrated our 25th Anniversary before I had to move south with my family.
