Perfect Placement

This photograph is from a client's vacation home on Cape Cod; they've selected our Old Colony pattern for their 1890s retreat and it's one of the most delightful placements I've seen. This delicately undulating Colonial Revival lace curtain pattern compliments the informality of the house and conveys a sense of relaxation, all the while adhering to a nostalgia for the past.

True Grit

The Coen Brothers are remaking the film True Grit; you may recall the original version from 1969 that starred John Wayne, Glen Campbell and Kim Darby. It was Wayne's last film and he won an Oscar for his role. The 2010 version, which stars Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges and Josh Brolin is currently filming in Texas, but for me, the biggest star will be Cooper's Cottage Lace; the set decorators bought a whole mess of our Eastlake and Grecian panels for the boarding house set. As a huge Coen Brothers fan, and an aficionado of historic interiors, I'm very excited...

The release date is next Christmas.

See you at the movies!

Are You Going to Asheville?

The Arts and Crafts Conference in Asheville,
North Carolina, February 19-21, 2010


Cottage Lace exhibits at roughly half a dozen trade shows a year. Most of them are regional, meaning that their intended audience is from Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis and perhaps Pasadena, although the latter does draw folks from all over.


And then there's Asheville: this show is the grand dame of all of them, and folks travel from around the world to attend the antique show, the lectures and to visit the contemporary craftsfirms, amongst which is your favorite lace company.


This is our second year exhibiting at the 22 year old show, although I've attended in years past when I was working for another company. For that firm, and my own, I found that having a presence was invaluable; everyone is there...it's like your entire address book is waiting in the bar for you. There's wheeler-dealers, scholars and enthusiastic homeowners all mingling for three days.


The event is held at the legendary Grove Park Inn, a magnificent stone edifice with a breathtaking lobby. Most folks try and stay there, and if you're informed that it's sold out, keep checking; rooms often become available as the show nears. The hotel also has an amazing spa, where I've often wound up meeting clients and verbally closing a deal.


Asheville, NC itself is a great college town, there are many lovely restaurants, including my favorite, The Laughing Seed. There are also good clubs for dancing or listening to music as well. For those of us who live in the North, the temperature seems balmy, even though it's the dead of winter. All in all, it's the perfect break for those of you passionate about the Arts and Crafts Movement, and it's always worth the trip.

A Lace By Any Other Name...

...is still a Madras Lace Curtain.

Not to belabor, but to educate, that's my goal. As a writer and a lecturer, my mission has always been to share as much information as possible with the public, so that they make informed decisions and we then can all preserve history together. Got a question about historic houses, interiors or antiques? Just write.

So, with that in mind, here goes: Cooper's Cottage Lace, LLC, known to many, and doing business as Cottage Lace, sells Madras Lace Curtains. They are woven in Scotland, on the outskirts of Glasgow, by really wonderful folks. They've been working diligently to keep the industry alive in the United Kingdom, and they're doing a great job. They help with the technical, production and shipping aspects of my business with breathtakingly fast speed, and they are a joy to work with. They've been helping me with a new line that should appear sometime this year (it's a secret, it's really cool, and I promise that you'll be the first to know).

The Mill has been in business for over 100 years, and they call our curtains and panels Madras Lace (or, sometimes Lace Madras, when they feel like it).

In addition, there's a very well-known company in downtown Boston, MA, who started importing reproduction lace curtains, well before other companies, and they call their curtains Madras Lace. In fact, another company that sells lace curtains refers to this particular weave as "Madras Lace" on their website.

I started this entry by paraphrasing Shakespeare, and I'll close by quoting him directly, from The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene III: "The devil can cite scripture for his purpose".

Thoughts on 2009 and Madras Lace Curtains

It's been a heck of a year for all of us; but as we close out the books on 2009 and prepare for 2010, I took some time to think back on the challenges we faced as a business, and in truth, I'm really gratified.

What am I most grateful for? All of you; our customers, artisans, showroom owners and supporters!

One of the drawbacks of being an Internet business is that you seldom get to meet your clientele, and so I traveled around the country and I got to speak with so many of you in person at shows, museums and even while installing our curtains when I could! I was humbled by your enthusiasm for our products and just how broadly and deeply the awareness of our line has become! Who would have thought that just over two years ago, when we emerged as a tiny newbie in the crowded lace curtain field, our star would shine so brightly, and so quickly? Our products have evidently caused a ripple across the industry, and I'm truly flattered by this, as it is only further affirmation of our concept of Artful Lace.

We introduced a line of lace curtains designed by Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers and your response has been fantastic! As of tomorrow, we'll be taking orders for our newest lace pattern: Oak & Acorn by C. F. A. Voysey and David E. Berman. The introduction of this latest pattern is especially rewarding; we have be displaying its prototype at trade shows since May of 2009, and we finally came up with the perfect border, thanks to David at Trustworth Studios.

So again, thanks to all of you for making the most of a challenging year. Drive safely, have a great time, and know that you all deserve my warmest affection.

Yours,

Dan Cooper, President
Cooper's Cottage Lace, LLC

Voysey Oak & Acorn Lace

About Our Newest Lace Pattern
by C. F.A. Voysey and David E. Berman

First off, a little history about C. F. A. Voysey: he was an English architect and designer of the second generation of the British Arts & Crafts Movement. Voysey followed on the heels of William Morris and Charles Locke Eastlake, and was a contemporary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Think of these gents and their peers as Great Britain's answer to France's Art Nouveau and Germany's Jugendstil.

Secondly, let me introduce David E. Berman of Trustworth Studios. David is a Voysey fanatic: he has taught himself woodworking, metalsmithing, finishing and any other skill that might allow him to reproduce Voysey's designs. He started with furniture and lighting, but now he focuses on creating Voysey's wallpaper and fabrics.

David has been a dear friend of mine since the early 1990s when I worked in the eastern part of the state and had a long commute. I would stay over at his place twice a week, and we shared many a dinner and occasionally went on historic interior design calls together. Our exploits are the fodder for my second book, which hopefully will be published in the coming year or so.

Back to the lace: Cooper's Cottage Lace has always sought to approach the finest contemporary Arts and Crafts Movement artisans and ask them to design our Artful Lace curtains. David obliged with one of his favorites, The Oak and Acorn. It's a wallpaper design, and you can see Voysey's watercolor for it here:

(David would be delighted to print this for you in any color and scale, as that is Trustworth's speciality.) We decided that using a symmetrical mirror image would look nicer for a lace panel, so David flipped it, and this is the resulting image:

He then added a pin-stripe border, and I had it woven in Scotland in 100% cotton Madras Weave. We're both delighted with the way it turned out, and I'm so happy to be able to add it to our line of Arts and Crafts Lace Curtains.

Madras vs. Nottingham

A Tale of Two Laces

Almost all of the lace curtains that are currently available are fabricated in one of two different weaves: Madras or Nottingham. Most of the patterns that you see are Nottingham: it's less expensive to produce and there are several companies with Nottingham looms. A pattern is created by a number of different stitches that allow a variety of shadings. The lace is "flat", meaning that there is no outside or inside, and the panels are reversible.

Madras lace, on the other hand, is made by only one mill in Scotland, and it is a far more painstaking process. First, a layer of scrim is produced; imagine a very soft, fine piece of cheesecloth that is woven and then put back on the loom. Then, the pattern of choice is applied on top of the scrim and then the excess is sheared off. While there are only 2 or 3 "shadings", the detail is much crisper and delicate. There's also a fair amount of waste, and the looms are much slower. Madras lace also has a "fuzzy" side, which typically looks best facing into the room.

Here's the difference between the two:

I borrowed a friend's Nottingham curtain with an Arts and Crafts "Square Rose" motif and photographed it:

And below is a section of our Hunter Rose in Madras. Note that both roses are roughly the same size:

If you can blow up the shots, you can see their textural differences quite dramatically. This blog is not a judgement between the two weaves; both are great, but it's always nice to understand the difference.