One of the ‘OTHER’ lace types that I study/teach/make is Teneriffe Lace. Another name for this lace type is Sol Lace. Sol is the Spanish word for ‘sun’. This is a good descriptive name because many of the traditional motifs are round & have radiating threads (warp threads) upon which a design is stitched with a needle. Thus it is a form of ‘needlelace’. To create the lace the warp threads are laid down in a overlapping, radiating fashion on some form of a ‘loom’. There are many forms of looms. In my Teneriffe Lace classes, we use a plastic canvas shape which is cheap and (usually) readily available (Hobby Lobby, Walmart). There are many different antique looms from the past. Some looms are more cumbersome to use because they entail having to use a needle to manipulate many (think several) yards of thread in dozens of maneuvers to lay down the warp threads, all the while hoping that you have enough thread cut from the ball to work continuously.

The loom that The ShuttleSmith is recreating is a unique loom in that the warp thread can be laid down continuously from the ball of thread source. This makes the warping step fast. Another benefit of this loom is that it is reusable. It is used by Brazilian lacemakers today. I found reference to this style of loom in an antique German publication/book.

So I tried to recreate this style of loom in plastic for myself by using a 3-D printer. I called upon my newly-graduated son (in mechanical engineering) to create ‘CAD’ programs for several sizes of Teneriffe Lace looms to my specifications. The following photos show my teneriffe loom design being 3-D printed for the first time at my local library. Most libraries today have a ‘maker space’ of some form, many with 3-D printers. I paid a nominal fee to have my prototype loom printed. It did take about an hour to print but was fascinating to watch.