Although they are things of great beauty, lacemaking bobbins are, above all tools. They have a single purpose, and that is to make lace. There are many different types of bobbins which have evolved over the thousands of years that lace has been made, and in each of it’s forms the bobbin is suited to the particular kind of lace that is being made.

The most popular bobbins in use in the UK and the USA are the ‘Midlands’ style, and these are the bobbins that most non-lacemakers associate with the craft. Whatever the style of bobbin the ‘anatomy’ is much the same, it’s form varies because of the weight of thread or the method of making. The ‘Spangles’ we associate with Midlands Bobbins would be a hindrance in making Honiton lace, where you need to make lots of ‘sewings’ threading the bobbin through loops of thread – the beads would catch – so they have a slightly pointed end.

Lacemaking Bobbins are composed of four main parts, the Midlands style has a fifth. The Head of the bobbin is probably the most important part as this is where the thread is hitched to keep it from running off the bobbin. It is important that the head is very smooth with no rough patches to catch the thread and cause a weakness. It has to be big enough for the thread to hold onto, but not so big that it unbalances the bobbin.

The neck is the part of the bobbin where the thread is wound. For some laces this needs to hold a great deal, the linen laces of Bruges for example, require a great deal of thread, whereas Bedfordshire Lace uses very little thread on a bobbin as they continually leave the lace and are reintroduced. Again the neck must be smooth as silk, slender enough to take enough thread but not so slender that it breaks. When making bobbins this is the point at which they usually break – and also in use.

The body is where the turners like me can express themselves, within reason. It needs to have some weight to it, but not too much and you can shape it to show off the beautiful markings of the wood, or splice different woods together to make patterns, even wind them with decorative wire. The most elaborate are ‘Mother and Babe’ where you will have a tiny bobbin inserted into the body of the lacemaking bobbins, visible through tiny windows on each side.

The tail is where Continental bobbins differ from the Midlands Style. They will have a heavy wooden bulb, the shape depending on where they come from. This will give weight to the bobbin and tension the thread. A Midlands Bobbin has a simple tail with a small hole drilled through it to hold the Spangle.

Spangles give rise to much comment from non-lacemakers, most people think that they patterns of beads are to enable you to remember where the bobbins are – not so! It would be impossible to remember the pattern, let alone the position of hundreds of them. They are there to give weight to the bobbin and so tension the thread, in the same way that a Continental bobbin has weight in the wood. Most lacemakers spend as much time choosing the beads to compliment their bobbins as they do in choosing the lacemaking bobbins themselves.