Puncetto Books

[Linda]

Hello to All,
I would like to thank Lorelie for allowing me to join this group. I am looking forward to getting to know each of you and find out what your interests are.
My needle lace passion for now is , Puncetto.
I must confess the more I know about Puncetto the less I think I know.
I ran into the YouTube video a few years back(can't really remember how long ago now). I fell in love with watching this vid and thought the finished product was out of this world! I went on a quest to find out how to do Puncetto Lace. Like most of everyone else I didn't find out much. I did come up with most of the little mags and books everyone else did but found out I needed more to learn this craft. After doing another search a few days ago I was lead to this website by conversation about a book that can be purchased in Italy titled scuola di Puncetto Valsesiano - Societa' Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso. I don't know if I have this right but I did find the website to purchase it plus others in Puncetto I think. If I am understanding properly, some here have already purchased this book. I was wondering if those that have the book could tell me how well the book has helped you considering it is in Italian and I do not speak or understand Italian. I was also wondering if this book helped you was it the kind of needle lace that is featured on the YouTube video. After scouting around the internet I have gotten the impression that there is Puncetto that you can do on fabric? Have I got this right? Puncetto can be done on fabric? I am looking for a book to help me learn like the video on YouTube. I must confess I don't think I understand all I know about Puncetto. Any help any of you can give me would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Linda

[Naomi Rogers]

Hi Linda: I too do not read or speak Italian but I ordered and have received a book, Puncetto Valsesiano Manuale Di Base. I have not started on this lace yet as I am awaiting supplies.....needles, thread, etc. but it seems to have clear diagrams. I am sure Puncetto can be done on fabric as it is suggested in the book that you start off learning by working the stitches on fabric. Desiree who is in this group could probably answer you question.

[Elizabeth Ligeti.]

As I understand it, you can work Puncetto as an edging on fabric, or free of fabric. The only piece I have actually seen (and touched) was just the lace - No fabric. We found it hard to identify, at the time, but with an urgent email to Devon, we were pointed in the right direction! She is a veritable Fount of knowledge!!
Puncetto has a very different texture, and almost looked like knitting on the wrong side!! (If I remember correctly!) I have one page of instructions from an Embroiderers Guide, or some such book, where there is one chapter on each of all sorts of needlework. I tried it, without much success, - but now I have been working on Armenian knotted lace, and have a better understanding of Knotted Laces, I am going to go back and have another go. I think, now, that I will understand better what the instructions are telling me!!
I tried the Oya flowers, too, from a magazine's insturctions, without much success, - but again, now I know a bit more about the knotted laces, I think I will be able to work from the instructions a bit better. I am looking forward to my Advanced Class at IOLI in Knotted lace! so much to learn...!!! :)

[Lucy ludwig]

Hi Linda,
I am a beginner at Puncetto, and yes, these books are cover the topic of the video. A person on the arachne webring told me last year that the book A Scuola di Puncetto Valesiano was produced by the son of the woman who is working in the video, and her work appears on the cover. I have been looking for books about as long as you have and it is only very recently that another lace network mentioned Italian Needlecrafts.

I started playing with puncetto last year using the book Anchor Needlework. My first tries were pathetic.
With these new books, I am improving. Although the diagrams in all the books I have mentioned on this site are clear, it still takes quite a bit of patience to figure out exactly what to do. At least for me, it has taken about 30 hours of practice to get a "cloth" or "weave" that looks even. I'd assume experienced persons in needle lace will have a much shorter learning curve.

You can start the work either on a piece of cloth or by creating the base on the fingers, as shown in the video. I found it useful to start with practicing on a folded piece of counted thread linen (purchased at Michaels) and using a size 20 cordonnet (six-ply, firm) cotton and a size 24 tapestry needle. DMC white is really the best for this. I've tried perle cotton, linen, and silk - they don't look very nice with this lace. You need the cordonnet because the thread takes quite a bit of abuse being pulled through the spaces between the knots.

Once I had a book (Manuale ..), I was able to create the base on my finger.

As I mentioned in my other post, an Italian dictionary and Google Translate are useful.
Good luck! I may share my experiences or ask for help!
Lucy

[Elizabeth Ligeti.]

I may share my experiences or ask for help

Yes, Please, Lucy, - share your experiences!! there are a couple of us, obviously, who want to learn this type of lace, so we need to help each other, as best we can. I won't be starting anything untill I come home in mid August, but it would be great to be able to read how you others are getting on.

I will try to buy that book - again later in the year, - along with an Amelia Ars book!! :) I also want to try halas lace, too, - so I am going to be busy..!!! And some people sit around bored, with nothing to do!!!!! :)

[Linda]

Thank you all so much for your replies. I will be ordering the manual I hope this week and I am so looking forward to receiving the book and getting started. It is also very nice to find others that have the same interest in this lace as I do.
Thanks again,
Linda

[Linda]

Hi Lucy,
You mentioned that you are using a Italian Dictionary to help with translations. What is the name of the one you are using and where did you purchase it? I ordered my Puncetto manual this morning and thought I would get the rest of the supplies I need ready while the mail carries my book to me. Are things going well for you on your adventures with Puncetto?
Thanks for your help,
Linda

Lucy ludwig said:

Hi Linda,
I am a beginner at Puncetto, and yes, these books are cover the topic of the video. A person on the arachne webring told me last year that the book A Scuola di Puncetto Valesiano was produced by the son of the woman who is working in the video, and her work appears on the cover. I have been looking for books about as long as you have and it is only very recently that another lace network mentioned Italian Needlecrafts.

I started playing with puncetto last year using the book Anchor Needlework. My first tries were pathetic.
With these new books, I am improving. Although the diagrams in all the books I have mentioned on this site are clear, it still takes quite a bit of patience to figure out exactly what to do. At least for me, it has taken about 30 hours of practice to get a "cloth" or "weave" that looks even. I'd assume experienced persons in needle lace will have a much shorter learning curve.

You can start the work either on a piece of cloth or by creating the base on the fingers, as shown in the video. I found it useful to start with practicing on a folded piece of counted thread linen (purchased at Michaels) and using a size 20 cordonnet (six-ply, firm) cotton and a size 24 tapestry needle. DMC white is really the best for this. I've tried perle cotton, linen, and silk - they don't look very nice with this lace. You need the cordonnet because the thread takes quite a bit of abuse being pulled through the spaces between the knots.

Once I had a book (Manuale ..), I was able to create the base on my finger.

As I mentioned in my other post, an Italian dictionary and Google Translate are useful.
Good luck! I may share my experiences or ask for help!
Lucy

[Lucy ludwig]

Hi Linda. I am using an old Collins Italian-English/English-Italian paperback that I've had for years. You can pick up a decent, inexpensive dictionary at any books store such as Borders, Barnes and Nobel, or order from Amazon. I would avoid little phrase books - they won't help you - or spending a lot of money on a big hardback. Also, you can find things used at Amazon, Abe Books (www.abebooks.com), etc. Also check used book stores, if you have access to one. I am also a huge fan of Google Translate (translate.google.com). It is far from perfect, but with a critical eye you can figure things out.
I am crawling away at Puncetto - currently I am trying solve the problem of my left border looking nice and tidy while my right border looks awful and is never the same width when making a narrow open-work band.
Cheers!


Linda said:

Hi Lucy,
You mentioned that you are using a Italian Dictionary to help with translations. What is the name of the one you are using and where did you purchase it? I ordered my Puncetto manual this morning and thought I would get the rest of the supplies I need ready while the mail carries my book to me. Are things going well for you on your adventures with Puncetto?
Thanks for your help,
Linda

Lucy ludwig said:

Hi Linda,
I am a beginner at Puncetto, and yes, these books are cover the topic of the video. A person on the arachne webring told me last year that the book A Scuola di Puncetto Valesiano was produced by the son of the woman who is working in the video, and her work appears on the cover. I have been looking for books about as long as you have and it is only very recently that another lace network mentioned Italian Needlecrafts.

I started playing with puncetto last year using the book Anchor Needlework. My first tries were pathetic.
With these new books, I am improving. Although the diagrams in all the books I have mentioned on this site are clear, it still takes quite a bit of patience to figure out exactly what to do. At least for me, it has taken about 30 hours of practice to get a "cloth" or "weave" that looks even. I'd assume experienced persons in needle lace will have a much shorter learning curve.

You can start the work either on a piece of cloth or by creating the base on the fingers, as shown in the video. I found it useful to start with practicing on a folded piece of counted thread linen (purchased at Michaels) and using a size 20 cordonnet (six-ply, firm) cotton and a size 24 tapestry needle. DMC white is really the best for this. I've tried perle cotton, linen, and silk - they don't look very nice with this lace. You need the cordonnet because the thread takes quite a bit of abuse being pulled through the spaces between the knots.

Once I had a book (Manuale ..), I was able to create the base on my finger.

As I mentioned in my other post, an Italian dictionary and Google Translate are useful.
Good luck! I may share my experiences or ask for help!
Lucy

[Avital]

I remember when I was first learning Puncetto I had trouble with a few words. (I don't read Italian but I do read French and Latin.) I asked an Italian engineer at work whether he could help me and he was very willing. The only problem, as I later discovered, is that while his Italian was more than adequate, his English wasn't up to the task! Poor guy -- Livio hadn't a clue about needlework terms. At one point he picked up a pen and started pushing it through his sweater because he didn't know how to translate words like needle or stitch. 

 

I tend to use Google translate (http://translate.google.com/#) a lot because I spend most of my waking hours at a computer. You can cut and paste text or URLs or single words and it will translate them. Obviously, that's not so useful for translating books, unless you have a scanner and good OCR software.

 

I also use Chrome as a browser because it's so easy to translate Web sites in different languages into English. When I have to read something in Hebrew really fast, a mangled English translation is still faster than my trying to read the original, especially since Hebrew fonts on the Web are not very clear.

[Carmelina Andrade]

Hello from Mexico. I'm following your discussions and I want to say "Thank you" for your efforts. Mil Gracias.

[Avital]

Hi, everyone, I wrote a review of the basic Puncetto book:

http://apinnick.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/book-review-a-scuola-di-pu...

 

I also posted a glossary of Italian/English terms from the books (both basic Puncetto and coloured). The list was checked by Elena Rossi, the woman who sells the books (she offered to help me with the Italian), and by a coworker of mine who helped me puzzle out a few of the stranger terms.

 

http://apinnick.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/puncetto-italianenglish-gl...

[Linda]

Hello Avital,

Thank you so much for your work in helping us with the translation of Italian terms into English. You don't know how valuable your efforts are. I have put this craft on the back burner because I could not get a understandable translation. I have a couple of Swedish Weaving projects to finish and then I am going to go back to my Puncetto books again with your translations and see if I can make some headway with this beautiful craft. Thank you so much again. You have been a tremendous help.

Linda

Avital said:

Hi, everyone, I wrote a review of the basic Puncetto book:

http://apinnick.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/book-review-a-scuola-di-pu...

 

I also posted a glossary of Italian/English terms from the books (both basic Puncetto and coloured). The list was checked by Elena Rossi, the woman who sells the books (she offered to help me with the Italian), and by a coworker of mine who helped me puzzle out a few of the stranger terms.

 

http://apinnick.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/puncetto-italianenglish-gl...

[Avital]

You're welcome! It was actually rather fun. By the end I was able to understand some of the historical info in the sections at the beginning. The guy at work who helped me with a couple terms really liked Puncetto and said that maybe he would buy a copy of the book for his daughter. Later he asked me whether I would think it strange if he tried making Puncetto. I told him about the overseers of Brazilian embroidery workshops who noticed that married women finished their pieces faster and went through more needles. Then the supervisors discovered that the husbands liked to embroider in the evening to relax after work. ;-)

 

Avital

Linda said:

Hello Avital,

Thank you so much for your work in helping us with the translation of Italian terms into English. You don't know how valuable your efforts are. I have put this craft on the back burner because I could not get a understandable translation. I have a couple of Swedish Weaving projects to finish and then I am going to go back to my Puncetto books again with your translations and see if I can make some headway with this beautiful craft. Thank you so much again. You have been a tremendous help.

Linda

Avital said:

Hi, everyone, I wrote a review of the basic Puncetto book:

http://apinnick.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/book-review-a-scuola-di-pu...

 

I also posted a glossary of Italian/English terms from the books (both basic Puncetto and coloured). The list was checked by Elena Rossi, the woman who sells the books (she offered to help me with the Italian), and by a coworker of mine who helped me puzzle out a few of the stranger terms.

 

http://apinnick.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/puncetto-italianenglish-gl...