Tools Of The Trade

Day 29: My little home botany lab is equipped with a variety of specialized tools, mostly the hand-held (and less expensive!) versions of mechanized professional devices. Some of them require an extra degree of skill in order to get good results, and that's particularly the case with the microtome. Small specimens must be embedded in paraffin before mounting in the jaws, but larger pieces such as a snapdragon stem can be used without additional preparation. A straight razor is drawn across the glass plate to level the material, and then by turning the dial on the base, the specimen may be advanced in increments of 0.01 mm (10 microns). A second slice with the razor will yield a section of tissue suitable for viewing under the microscope.

The implement with the gold handle is also a measuring device. It is called a "mini-tool" and the spade end is 5 mm. wide, with each millimeter marked off in 10 divisions. With its markings barely visible to the naked eye, this tiny "ruler" is placed under the microscope objective at lower powers to determine such things as cell length/width. For higher powers, a reticule and/or stage micrometer are required, but that's for another post. Scientists have the coolest toys!

Lace Maker's Rule

Day 332: For the last week or so, I have been developing a bobbin lace pattern (a sampler) to insert into the channel of an acrylic ruler designed with this type of display in mind. The lace is protected by a snap-in cover, removable if you want to change it out for another piece. Several factors went into planning the lace, width and length affecting the number of repeats possible in the alloted space, and weight of the threads (working thread and gimp). The pattern I created worked well with #60 cotton and #8 perle, but I decided I wanted to see what it would look like with a heavier thread carried along the sewing edges. I had worked one full motif using #12 perle before deciding it was too bulky.

About 35 years ago, I purchased a one-pound cone of white #60 cotton from a supplier in McMinnville Oregon, now long out of business. It proved to be my favourite thread, and now I find myself getting close to the end of the cone. Upon reaching the conclusion that I didn't like the look of the #12 in the edge, I was faced with a dilemma. Bobbin lace should have no knots. It is begun with the threads from pairs of bobbins hung around pins. If I cut my work and threw the completed section of lace away, I would not have enough left on a single bobbin to wind a new pair, i.e., I would be wasting all the thread I had originally wound on the bobbins. There was nothing for it but to unwork the piece, reversing my actions one by one until the entire lace was un-picked.

When a fiber artist is developing a new design, there are usually hitches in the process. I counted myself lucky that none of them had been in the way I'd drafted the work. Backing out of the lace stitch by stitch, I salvaged every inch of thread and completed the sampler this morning.