Aemilia Ars Needle Lace - New Book!

Nothing lifts the spirits bogged down by winter doldrums like a new needlework book! Pictured above is the third and latest publication in the Quaderni di Aemilia Ars series. This time the ladies of the Associazione Culturale "I Merletti di Antonilla Cantelli" tackle fruit!

Classic Fruits is the title and in addition to pomegranates and grapes there are acorns, sheafs of grain and all the appropriate foliage to help you create nine exquisite projects of various sizes and difficulty.

There are detailed instructions with the support stitches visible and though the text is only in Italian, if you've been experimenting already, you should be able to follow along. If this is your first foray into Aemilia Ars Needle Lace, there are diagrams and close-up fotos to help you figure things out if you don't speak Italian.

Sample page. Copyright Nuova S1.

This soft-cover book is a healthy 80 pages made up mostly of close-up photos, something I really like! I really want to be able to count the stitches in an example when I'm doubting whether I've done something correctly. I never have any idea of how many stitches should be filling an area and I'm always afraid to make my own guess, so this really helps me become a little more comfortable when learning something new.

I have translated a few paragraphs from the introduction:

The acorn, pomegranate, grapes and sheafs of grain are recurring motifs in our lace. Not all are fruits in the true meaning of the word, but we believe in the understanding of the reader for this and other inaccuracies.

[...]

We have indicated these fruits as classics for their presence in many contexts (traditions, history, legends, sacred texts, designs, heraldry) and their various symbolic meanings more often changing over time and from place to place, they themselves have changed. 

[...]

Among the many possible executions of each motif, in the technique Aemilia Ars, we have made a particular choice, dictated primarily by simplicity. The pictures indicate the orientation of the piece during execution.

[...]

The drawings were done in pencil. We are not interfering with the result: we wanted to maintain that undeniable charm that the lines have – a bit faded and certainly always irregular. Everything is now in the hands of those who will make and give their own interpretation.

If you've already seen the two previous books in this series: Fiori [Flowers] and Bordi [Borders], then you know that this will be a rare and valuable addition to your library. If you're in Europe, you can order directly from the publisher, Nuova S1 and pay by bank transfer. If you are overseas, you can pay with PayPal from Tombolo Disegni (send an email request to order).

Look for the May/June 2013 issue of Piecework for another great project in Aemilia Ars Needle Lace!