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You are here: Home / All blog posts / Back lace; rings ‘n things
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March 6, 2010 by Tien Chiu

Back lace; rings ‘n things

I’ve now started applying the back lace.  I reached the halfway point yesterday, and am hoping to finish it this weekend, along with the pearls.  Here’s a 50-50 photo of the finished and unfinished lace; you’ll have to click through to the larger version to see the difference clearly.  Looks much neater on the completed (right) side, n’est-ce pas?

Alencon lace, applied to the back of the handwoven wedding dress

Today I’m going to Sharon’s, where we will:

  • put the second lining into the dress
  • pin up dress lining
  • finish the bottom front of the coat, where the lining, facing, etc. meet.
  • finish putting in the coat lining (sleeves + sewing down the neck and armhole edges)
  • pin up coat lining

or as much of that as we can get done in one day.

In other news, we’re going to be picking out wedding/engagement rings soon!  I can’t wait.  We both want something more interesting than the standard plain band, and I’d like something way more interesting than a hunk of rock for an engagement ring.  In fact, I’d like a band where the workmanship is the bulk of the cost, rather than the materials.  Not too surprising for an artisan/craftswoman, I guess!

One intriguing possibility is here, although I’ve been told (by someone else who purchased their wedding-rings) that, because of the thin layering, they don’t really age well; lots of scratches  etc.  A pity; mokume gane is beautiful metalwork.

However, since the Contemporary Crafts Market is coming up next week at Fort Mason, and there will be about 90 jewelry artisans there, we’re planning to head on over and see what there is to be seen.  In my case, it will probably be a combination engagement/wedding band, as I don’t really want to wear two rings.

This sounds like great fun!

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Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, sewing Tagged With: wedding dress

Previous post: Technical difficulties
Next post: Whither next?

Comments

  1. Jan says

    March 6, 2010 at 8:26 am

    Perhaps you will see my neighbor there. The ring photos you posted reminded me of his work. He does not have those on his web site though ;-(

    http://www.etsy.com/shop/cliffscharfjewelry?section_id=5376523

  2. DMartin says

    March 10, 2010 at 10:31 am

    After clicking through the link you posted, I immediately thought of the damascus blades that my brother and I admire so much. In fact, I have the Shun kitchen knives simply for their looks–though if I remember correctly they are not technically damascus blades. Anyway, the point being, it got me wondering if it was possible to make a damascus ring, as surely it would stand up to wear and tear?

    • Tien Chiu says

      March 11, 2010 at 1:26 pm

      Hi,

      I think Chris Ploof does do damascan steel rings. The only difficulty is that, because of the fine layering, it’s relatively easy to scratch, even so. My friend with the wedding rings from Ploof had steel rings, and they still scratched. Too bad!

      [WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.

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