Watching this has inspired me to set a new goal: improve my sewing skills enough to purchase lace from Cluny, and make myself an edwardian lingerie dress inspired piece. I really hope that they find people to continue the work, and it's such a shame that the UK government doesn't subsidize and support these dying arts.
One of the pieces of Nottingham lace my grandmother left me was one of her mother's handmade nightgowns, trimmed with lace. I don't know how they managed to sow like that - you can't even see the stitches they are so small and even. In the 1960s hippy time, I used to wear this nightdress out in public!!
There is support for endangered crafts, unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) Leavers lace is not on the Heritage Trust's Red List, but they do offer grants for craftspeople keeping endangered crafts alive as well as funding for training so younger people can learn.
The way he uses that punch card machine makes me think of an organist. His hands and feet all going at the same time yet all acting independently. The skill it takes is nothing short of amazing. Hopefully he can train someone before it's too late.
If I lived in England I’d be begging for them to teach me to be the punch card operator. What a wonderful skill that contributes to something so beautiful and unique.
It’s so good that this documentary is here on RU-vid now. It is high time that something happens. It’s British heritage and may not be lost. (Having said this I think it’s also world heritage). The tears in the eyes of the elderly gentleman at the end really got me😢
Lace making should be historically protected industry. I love making christening dresses using real lace. When the day comes and only nylon or polyester lace is available I will no longer make the gowns.
*THEY NEED HELP MARKETING* because other industries producing quality traditional cloth etc are doing very well, tailors are very busy. People are starting to appreciate quality traditionally made cloth and trimmings - I just snapped up 112 meters of Hand Woven Harris Tweed at auction and I know every single mm of it will sell in my suit commissions before the mass-produced modern stuff.
And then there must be new and young people who see a future in it and are willing to make these skills their own. Like in restoring old houses, like a Tudor building, you need people who can do all those traditional building techniques. There’s a market for it.
@@carmenm.4091 ABSOLUTELY - Gen Z LOVE finding old traditional things to do for a hobby and a living. Tech is not special to them. An iPhone is a screwdriver -- its a tool. They LIKE "real" things. Im a semi-professional bespoke tailor of mens historical clothing - I bought a 13" pair of fabric shears custom made from a company in Sheffield. I passed the details on to Alec Scteel the RU-vidr - he went and did a video, it went up on Monday and has 250k views already and Ive spoken to the company - they have had a LOT of orders. These are £100 to £550 scissors. But in 2024 there are a lot of people who care and have the money to buy quality things that have history woven into them.
@@carmenm.4091 ABSOLUTELY - Gen Z LOVE finding old traditional things to do for a hobby and a living. Tech is not special to them. An iPhone is a screwdriver -- its a tool. They LIKE "real" things.
I visited one of the Harris Tweed factories (there are 3 of them on the island of Lewis/Harris) and it was like my Disneyland. My company at the time was using the material on some of the boots we manufactured. It was the best in every way. It's such an amazing material!
I do some bobbin lacemaking and we often hear about how machines killed off the traditional bobbin lace trade. But watching this video was like watching a nature program when you suddenly feel sorry for the predator because they are now being hunted down by something even bigger! The “new” technology eventually becomes a traditional form in its own right and now that is also endangered. It’s sad.
I also do bobbin lace and frankly find it hard to appreciate machine made lace, lever or otherwise, knowing the time and painstaking work involved in doing it the real traditional way, by hand and not the make-believe machine way. There is a there is as much difference between handmade lace and lever lace as there is between lever lace and mass-produced lace. The handmade lace is much more delicate and beautiful. It certainly isn't full of holes that have to be repaired.
This was the comment I was looking for! These machines were designed to mimic the work of human artisans. Our mind and technical ability is limitless. Do away with the machines and the problem is solved. We'd suddenly appreciate our artisans again after starving them off during the industrial revolution. Watching this makes me want to knit myself some lace curtains. So long as there are people, there will be lace. Enjoy your retirement robots 🤖 .
In a situation like this to preserve the art form, the Gov can intervene by allocating funds for internship to students local or foreign whoever is interested to pursue. People need to participate in local issues, elections, stand up for those who don't have a voice or power. Sadly people spend their time on things that carry no value. Thanks for sharing this wonderful art form.
My mother's family is from Nottingham, and my grandfather used to seek out orders for the lace company he worked for. I only visited his workplace once, and all I remember is the noise & smell. I wish now I had paid much more attention. I do however still have some pieces of the lace which my grandmother left me. Thank you for this video, you have brought back a memory I had completely forgotten about.
what makes me sad is that this is still machine work, this is so easy compared to the handmade things we already lost, can you imagine what we are losing here? we already lost handmade patterns and now we are losing machine patterns ...
In a way handmade is easier to revive because of the scale of it. These machine made crafts require such a huge range of support industries to keep them going many of which are also dying arts themselves. It makes it so hard for them.
OKay so I tried to go buy some because that's my first go to whenever I see these types of videos. First of all they need to have a functional website, it's pretty buggy. Second of all they need to sell lace by the meter online. Thirdly they need to hire a person to learn over from the cardboard punch guy. For a business to thrive you need to be adaptable and focus on sucession planing and make your product accessible to the masses. No point whining. They live in England for g's sake, not in some war ravaged city with bad internet and import/export restrictions, if they put the effort to make it accessible they can do it.
Twenty years ago there should have been a full course press to strengthen this wonderful industry. It still needs to happen but playing catch up will be a bear. Multiple trainees for the cardboard punch guy and mechanics should be done ASAP. And for pity sake make the trainee (and teaching) positions alluring. Perhaps a break on taxes? Room & board? There are almost endless options here. All to be dependent upon an agreement to work for day a minimum of 10 years at the lace manufacturers. As for new pace designs: Really, no one at the universities or trade shops of this wide world can puzzle out the way to retrieve this lost skill??? Set out a challenge! It is difficult to see ones way through a morass of challenges when one is heavily burdened just trying to keep apace with the day to day of ever growing headaches. They need help, practical, sustained, hands on assistance. People eager, creative, & willing to listen & be attentive to what the seasoned employees here have to impart.
@@jkgannon1049 "Multiple trainees for the cardboard punch guy and mechanics should be done ASAP." I can't believe those cards couldn't be replicated by 3-D printing
@erinharkiewicz7239 Still why not have people trained in traditional methods? Yes, one could simply bow to the oldest tradition, hand making of lace, but I argue, there's room for both traditions.
I have bought their lace by the meter online through third party sellers. I'm not sure they do direct sales to customers. He said in the video that he has tried to train people to do the card punching, but no one finished the process. It's a tough job, and, I imagine, it requires years of on-the-job training with very little monetary reward. Plus, with so few people working there, it's probably hard to train someone while you're trying to meet existing production quotas. And if the quotas aren't met, they can't pay anyone. I don't know the ins and outs of their business, but I don't think they are facing problems from lack of trying. We exist in an economy that's best suited for fast, easy, and cheap products, and this style of lacemaking is none of those things. When people can buy nylon lace for $1 a yard/meter, it's nearly impossible for lacemakers using older methods to stay in business. Unless there's some kind of subsidy for preserving historical processes that removes them from the pressures of the economy, they will not be able to survive.
Beautiful product, but folks.... This is learned helplessness. Digitize the cards and the patterns that "no-one can make ever again" and make the punchcards out of something more durable than cardboard for pete's sake! UHMW plastic comes to mind immediately. Scan the patterns that have the numbers written in and OCR/sequence them, and then make a machine that punches the patterns. This is not hard; a good high school robotics team could knock it out in a school year. Their product is beautiful, but it's still a business, and businesses need to modernize (and market!) in order to survive.
The punch cards need to fit inside of the machine. And I imagine all that friction creates heat. Does 3d printing get thin enough and does 3d plastics hold up to friction and heat?
@@tracinickerson307punch card home knitting machines use thin plastic. You can punch your own patterns using a manual puncher. I wonder if you can make your own leavers lace machine with a similar concept. Their equipment is also wearing down and no one has made one in about 60 years.
@@tracinickerson307 3-D printing certainly can be thin enough, and I guarantee that some of the 3-D printing media is at least as "tough" as cardboard as to both friction and heat
I am surprised they have not thought of making a master out of Stainless steel as it can be lightweight enough when thinner and still strong enough to last longer than cardboard. But a machine can be created to punch the cardboard using the master key. Because lace is so expensive today, I have been learning to make my own lace for a dress that I designed. Only because I wish to only use cotton and not nylon or polyesters. Both of those fibers create so much static on me, I’m tired of getting zapped when reaching out to get something off the shelves in the supermarkets. It’s why I have been converting my clothes from any nylon or polyesters to linen, wool, cotton and a few other fabrics just like linen. Polyester clothes make you hot, sticky and sweaty and then it smells yuck, over time that smell just never gets washed out anymore so the garment had to be binned, it’s unless as rags as it does not soak up messes so your not able to recycle it as easy, sure you could make a rug out of it but I’m not sure how well it would turn out or last. The worst fabric ever invented was polyester, it’s flammable but worst still it melts so your clothes end up melting onto you if caught in a fire. That happened to a friend back in the 90’s her back, legs and arms were so badly damaged she was in critical care for over a year with so many skin grafts being done using the skin from the front of her legs and arms. No it’s time for the world to turn back the clock and start using natural fibers for clothing.
Depending on the natural fiber. Cotton is actually really bad for the environment -- even organic -- as it uses so much water. Bamboo is better in that regard. I hate synthetic fibers, but it's so hard to find natural fiber clothing these days that isn't cotton.
@@the_real_littlepinkhouseflyMining uses so much more water and that's how we get a lot of the synthetics. At least pure cotton doesn't end up as micro-plastics in humans and the environment, like synthetics do. Synthetics never disappear.
My son is a glass blower. No synthetic fabrics are allowed in the hot shop. One dreadful day a young lady ignored the rules. Her clothes melted into her. She survived but .......
I agree 💯%. Trying 2 get back 2 all natural fibers myself. Cotton/linen, etc just feels so much better in warm climates...but it is getting more difficult to find them. Wish I could learn how to sew and find hemp.fabric.. 😊
The TV channel NHK World Japan has made many similar programs stressing the importance of passing these kinds of ancient skills along to a younger generation before they are lost forever. Pottery, clothing dyes, traditional food preservation - from pickles to making soy sauce - all are fascinating and many are at risk of being gone forever. Hoping the government or school system in the UK can step in to set up a teaching program for these lace makers.
In Japan had an artisan title figure called "Alive National Treasure". The goverment pay a month check to the artisan for continuing their craft, althought they had custormers or not.
I spent one week study types of lace and din´t understand a lot of things. It´s amazing to see these machines working! About a lack of workers, sometimes is not the hard work, is the work environment. With 24 I´m trying to work in the automotive field and din´t hired me because I´m a woman. And in book binding field, I started as apprendice, soon I learn by myself make to work a very vintage paper sewing machine, I wish to be there all of my life (with very poor salary) but my boss emplyed a boy "because a woman can not be a master binder" says. This is sad. Young people wish to work, but old folks dind´t care about nothing. Anyway, I´m crying to found a vintage place like this to work.
Surely one of Britain's Living History museums would be interested in acquiring your business, repairing machines, learning the skills, exhibiting them to the public, & meanwhile making a product to sell. While there may be ways to streamline & modernize the process & to preserve the tools (scan & computerize the punch cards), one of those places should be ideal for preserving the skills of the early days. I hope you find someplace with an interest & that the gentleman who does the punch cards can find someone who is so fascinated with the rocess that a little dirt isn't a deterrent. I for one, do adore lace & I have miles of it (OK, maybe yards?), old & new, handmade & machine. If I were rich, I should love to be buried in a lace shroud with lace shawls given to all the mourners---now THAT would be a party!
They’re not trying to survive. They need a modern apprenticeship scheme so that the job is a bit more varied for the individual worker, look to capture a different market than the one they seem so proud of (Royal wedding dresses and couture houses) and like someone else said, get a decent website, produce stock items and sell worldwide to the public, for instance to the many women who make their own wedding dresses. I went to have a look and maybe buy a couple of metres - surprise surprise, I couldn’t.
I crochet lace so I have some inkling of what goes into these pieces. It is a beautiful art and a shame it is dying out. When I make something to give to someone (I never sell my work) they know just how much time and love has gone into the piece. Now I am at the stage of teaching my 12 year old granddaughter to crochet.
My Dad's job was a lost art, too. He was a Printing teacher. By the time he retired, it was only a couple of years until it was obsolete. Now, printing is all.done by computers. It was a beautiful art form that was practical, too. I can still smell the printer's ink, hear the clank of the machine, and see his nails embedded with black ink. It is sad this beautiful art form of lacing making is dying..I can relate that's for sure. 😢
I had heard of cluny lace from my grandmother. It's a total shame that the UK doesn't totally support this company. It is a part of the British history.
While there are about 100 professionals employed in this company, there are a growing number of hand lacemakers. Lace is not dead, it is changing ground. It takes narly an hour per square inch for handmade bobbin lace...more for needlelaces. I found the passion of thread in the 70s, learned by translating and just doing. I've taught over 100 to make it, some still "playing lace" . Once its in your fingers, it never really leaves. Book by Kellogg shows Collette age 14 working with 1000 bobbins. Its taken 50 years to find them all, but now I can make the lace in the picture on her pillow. That pleases me immensely. My daughter and grand daughter and grand son are makers now too. ))) Little kids can do it )))) so can you. )))
It's kind of odd hearing "the skills are gone", when there is at least one other company out there, manufacturing lace with seemingly the same technology. There is a Business Insider Video with basically the same content but about a French company (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-y5uX143hx38.html) and they seem to be able to create new patterns just fine...
It's a great shame apprenticeships can't be offered and get more people trained. The cards need to be scanned so they can be reproduced if need be. Government should helping support this British treasure for the future.
So beautiful, intricate, and technical. For something that took so long to develop and perfect to disappear is so sad. 'Tis the way fo the world though. EVERYTHING is only temporary.
Most likely. It's another factory job, and one that's likely cleaner and safer than a lot of others. If people will work for a biscuit factory or automaker, they'll work here if it pays a living wage.
It already cost $50 a yard and that’s just the base price sometimes they can cost $300 a yard people just aren’t willing to pay that when you can get the machine made polyester stuff to the untrained Sorry to say, but there’s just not that much difference to me there is I’m a seamstress and I love levers lace. I saw children’s heirloom clothes, but it cost $700 to make an infant gown with levers lace. Unfortunately, they simply can’t pay people enough. It’s not that they don’t want to.
@@amandaglidewell8451 you can get mass produced cotton lace at a fraction of the price of lever lace. Lever lace is mass produced machine made. Real lace is made by hand, not machine, but that would be even more expensive. For something fine and intricate, like Bucks point lace, at 3cm wide, it can take me about 5-10 hours to make 3 cm.
Sad to see this old industry go. But please bear in mind, those of you offering advice: it’s not just replacing the cards, or finding apprentices with good aptitude to learn the skills and prepared to work for a small wage, or finding engineers who can repair the aging machines, or finding new markets for the product…. It’s All Of These At The Same Time!! These people aren’t defeatist or stupid, they are just being realistic. I’m sure the 1000s of patterns they have will be recorded in some way.
why is something machine made an art form? Its mass produced. You wouldn't call knitting using a punch card system on a machine handmade or an art form, so why is this any different?
@@1aikane perhaps you should look up the meaning of art form. It is a style of art. Something that is a completed object is not an art form. Art form is a medium, a style, not a finished object.
I feel like, they could give reviving pattern making a shot. I'm sure if you were to digitalise all existing patterns and then use a combination of training a model on it and having a very crafty person check them, they would be able to make new ones. I'm sure with the right marketing, fashion brands would go crazy for custom high quality lace, unique to their brand. Worst case, even the punching can be done by a machine, if noone is willing to learn the skill. It is mainly punching copies of existing cards. Finding a more durable material that works on the existing machines as cards would also help
Fascinating my father-in-law and grandfather in law worked in silk Mills here in America. My grandfather in law was the one who was in head of all the patterns and he would walk the catwalk watch to make sure they were doing it right.
They desperately need young apprentices, and an organist to run that card punch machine! I would love to make a hobby project out of figuring out how to make new patterns, It looks like something I used to do as a kid. someone in the 1700's figured this out I think we can do it again!
Twenty years ago in Canada, I had the good fortune to purchase two tablecloths of heavy cotton Cluny lace at a local thrift shop. One lace cloth was given as a gift, the other still graces my table.
Omg i bought a lot of their lace for my wedding dress!!! I'm so happy I supported them. I highly recommend their lace, its amazing, its beautiful and so nice to touch
The tories during austerity massively cut funding to the Arts Council and the Crafts Council. They made a conscious decision to let our heritage die. These skills need to be preserved; they are living history.
I hope ppl step up to take this over so this art. I can’t imagine my life without Cluny Lace. My grandmother was half English and half French. I learned to sew with it.
After all lace doesn't do no harm its an important finishing for our daily lives so there is always a way... The machin is legally beautiful so it's a blessed creation.. Don't cry 🍀
I'm a proud owner of the piece of leavers lace. I hope the company would survive 🙏 Art and crafts are national treasure and should be protected at all costs 🙏
I would love to learn how to make lace! And carry on with this beautiful tradition. Lace is so delicate and beautiful. I can’t imagine a world without it!
My grandmother worked in the Nottingham lace industry in the first half of the last century. She was a bobbin setter? a very skilled job. Nottingham lace was renowned all over the world.
If school kids learned to make bobbin lace ribbons and fishnets by hand, they would appreciate and keep alive those machines when they grow up. And gladly pay the very fair prices.
I thought the same thing. I'm pretty sure that, for example, the replication of additional cards could be handled by high-level scanning and 3-D printers
There’s absolutely college students out there who’d want to create software for their dissertation to digitize the paper patterns so they aren’t lost to time. You could also absolutely create a CNC style machine to create the punch cards. And I KNOW there are nerdy enough fiber loving folks out there who could decipher the language of the old patterns (basically figure out what all the symbols mean again) so that new patterns could be created. The savior for this vintage mechanized but not fully industrialized art is to introduce computers. If a CNC machine can do the messy job of punching the cards, then you need a CNC operator who won’t be nearly as messy and won’t develop arthritic or repetitive motion injuries. If someone can design software to digitize the old patterns then the CNC machine will have file types to read AND there will be a method to create to patterns which can then be done anywhere, by anyone with the knowledge to use the software. You would still need people. People to thread the machines, design patterns, babysit & program & maintain not just the industrial machines but the computerized ones too. They REALLY need to get involved with a university or multiple universities with textile programs AND computer science programs. THE ANSWER LIES WITH THE YOUTH!
Life keeps changing and so many personal achievements are forever gone and irreatreavable . I hope that someone somewhere that has money cares enough to not let this precious way of lacemaking vanish into history. It is a cornerstone of human achievement that cannot be understood just with words. It takes seeing the lace and all of the details in making the lace to understand how and why it played such a huge part in history. Even handmade lace is very rare. I can’t even find any books about it in our vast collection of libraries here in Cuyahoga county, U.S. And I struggle to try to make it. I have grown old and have tried all my adult life to learn how to Tat. Another form of lace making. So it is here in my last years that I find online videos to teach. We are losing this precious art.
I wonder if there's a long documentary about this and without background music , with just people narrating and the beautiful sound of these majestic machines?
I hope this video helps people gain an interest is this style of lace making, even only as a hobby. I hope these videos help to revive dying arts before it is too late.
I’ve tried to encourage mothers and fathers to teach skills that would be very beneficial in financially difficult times. I insisted my daughters learn sewing and needlework. I wasn’t a popular mom at the time, but now the girls thoroughly enjoy knowing skills most of their friends admire.
I would literally move to England just to learn this skill in the hopes of keeping it from dying out. Suggestion: Reach out to engineers, die makers, mechanics and generally super smart people about making replacement parts, diagrams, blueprints and technical data sheets regarding repair. Perhaps even a new machine could potentially be built.
Thank you so much for this amazing video! It makes me really appreciate lace in a new way!!! Now I wish I knew where some of my old lace is so I can incorporate it into more of my clothes!! We need these beautiful workers to keep producing this wonderful product!!! Sooo magnificent! Thank you again!!!
My paternal grandfather's ancestors on his mother's side were involved in the lace trade in Nottingham in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My great-grandmother's aunt was a 'lace mender' at 16 according to the 1880 census, and her younger brother, at 10 years old, was a 'threader'. It's hard to imagine him climbing through those machines when he should have been in school. It does seem that some type of government subsidy could be provided for hiring apprentices. The company should consider having the pattern books scanned and archived electronically for the future.
There seems to be a resistance to adapting to modern retail opportunities. I'm in America and I went to the website to attempt to purchase some pf this lovely lace and the website is outdated and I gave up my attempt after clicking form one page to another. You won't survive if the masses can't get to you. You can't rely on fashion houses only, the public wants access It doesn't have to be a dying art, there are people who want to learn and be trained, but again, adaptability. Invest in the business and hire web designers and get that online sales ship launched. There's big money waiting!
Absolutely fascinating. I've always wanted to know how this was done. I'm a bobbin lace maker so it's a passion with in me. I hope someone comes along to save this
This was very interesting. Surely there are young people out there with an artistic bent and a love of craft, in the best sense of the word, to learn and continue lacemaking. You need to find them. All the best, cheers from Canada
I love handmade products. (for heaven's sake, not only do I knit, I spin yarn with a hand spindle) And of course this sort of lace requires human hands at virtually every step. But as for replacing the cards, producing new parts for the machines - I can't help but think that 3-D printers could solve these problems. And I can't help but think that AI assistance could recover the skill for creating new patterns.
how is something made by machine handmade? Handmade cluny lace is done on a lace pillow, by hand, not by machine. It's like saying a manual typewriter is handwriting.
@@warpedweft9004 Look how much hands on work is involved in this - your argument is like saying handspun wool isn't handspun if you use a spindle. Tools are always involved in virtually any human activity
@@erinharkiewicz7239 that is a very poor analogy. These machines are like the very old telegram and fax machines and pianolas. They are mechanical, machines. A spindle is not.
@@erinharkiewicz7239 you might just as well that hand embroidery is mechanical because you use a needle. There's no human creativity in this if you are not designing the patterns yourself and working them by hand. You punch a set of holes in card according to a predetermined pattern, and the machine does the rest. They aren't even designing any new patterns.
@@warpedweft9004 I have no idea why they aren't designing new patterns - and the idea that the ability to do so is "lost" is nonsense. There are French lever lace factories (you can find a Business Insider video) and they are doing new patterns all the time.
I wish I could learn lacemaking, I am in absolute awe of the last surviving pieces of the industry. I am also a silversmith and a jeweller by the learned vocation, I really wish I could be a part of such a skilltrade
I lived in Ipswich MA which had a large base of women making lace at home. It must have been very complicated and tedious. This video was fascinating to me.
This is a national treasure. This culture must have financial backing to include apprenticeships, workers and the factory. The idiot waste of money within the public service on a host of issues and then you see this national treasure struggling. When are we going to treasure vital industry that is unique to our country.
Keep heart ,a extraordinary material you create is loved by all who see it,even though they dont know what they are just witnessing.fingers crossed some young blood can jump in and save you
They absoluteky need to make tutorial videos on their jobs. Then we can have an example of how they did their individual jobs which may help bring back this lacemaking style in the future!!!!
This is the sort of video that is sadly lacking on RU-vid. That said I’m not convinced that these people aren’t their own worst enemies - the company should have been recruiting and training new staff 10, 15, 20 years ago - at very least they could have promoted the royal wedding connection - plenty of others have done so in the past (think Emmanuels - unheard designers became a household name). But the card-punch guy isn’t selling his job “look at me, I’m dirty” great advert, i don’t think!
I still have and use a .10 cent steel crochet hook the was my mothers from the 1970’s. Taught myself to use it at 13 years old. It’s lasted longer than my marriage, traveled with me half way across the country and back and made me many garments. Until I cannot see the thread it will be with me always. I’m sorry but all things come to an end.
