My visit to Ballarat

While on holiday here in Melbourne, I could not resist the chance to visit David Collyer in Ballarat. The trains to Ballarat are not running due to work on the track, so I took the bus. It is only an hour and a half and David met me at the station and we went to his cosy home. I found him to be a very charming man and we talked about lace and life for about 4 hours. He got out all his own hand-made lace and some antique lace and some lace and crochet work from his mother, grandmother and great grandmother. What a treat. I took a lot of photos and here are some of them to share with you.

A fantastic wide Chantilly edging make in the finest Pipers silk

This bookmark was made for a bookmark exchange by Miriam Gidron in Israel. It appears to be a mixture of Milanese lettering and edging with a Bucks point ground and Bruges leaves. I liked it.

I remember David writing of making this wide Tonder edging, 2 or 3 years ago. It is a full square edging but does not have a fabric centre yet. So beautiful!

This square was designed by David from a Chantilly edging.

A fantastic Bucks point spray of roses with a modern edging.

I can’t remember if this is Bucks Point or Tonder but I like the eagles. This was also redesigned by David from a straight edging, redrawn onto polar graph paper.

The man himself at his giant lace pillow. 1 1/2 m square with a variety of blocks to move around.