Bobbin Lace: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional and Contemporary Techniques (Dover Books on Needlepoint, Embroidery)

Rating:
Summary: A Good All Around Book for the Beginner
Review: As another reviewer stated, this book would be a good place for a beginner to start their lace adventure. The author begins with a little lace history and an explanation of the tools used in lace making. She then goes on to provide a tutorial on each of the basic lace techniques. Using this book and following the author's directions, I have been able to make my own lace "cookie" type pillow and a cylindrical lace pillow. I have worked through a number of the tutorials and did not find them "too wordy". :)
The examples are meant to show you how to read a pricking and how that translates into the basic lace making motifs. I think the examples do that job quite well. If you work through each of the tutorials, you will start to build your lace "vocabulary". The lace that results is not anything more than a sample of a technique, but the Author has provided pictures of modern laces as well as some spectacular older laces to inspire your own original designs.

I have learned a lot from this book and continue to use it as a reference for my own designs

Rating:
Summary: A good, solid beginner's manual
Review: The strongest point of this book, in my opinion, is the wonderful gallery of modern laces shown to inspire the new lacemaker. I really don't care for most of the patterns in this book, but that is no reason why you would dislike them. Still, the diagrams are clear, the instructions are fine (although a little wordy on occasion), and there are instructions for making several kinds of pillows. This is a good, solid reference which I would reccomend particualrly to the new lacemaker on a budget.