Old Embroidery Patterns

Accoding to Sian, these are lace patterns that look as if they are a structure called Reticella lace which is a 16th century Italian lace or actually a stitched lace and therefore embroidery and not a lace. A form of this lace was revived by John Ruskin when he lived in Cumbria. He enthused the local ladies groups to work a similar method on a thicker, linen and it was called Ruskin work. It’s still popular today.

More images

Sian's comments on my research images:
You have researched the shapes thoroughly, finding several organic shapes as well as purely decorative features in manmade items. You’ve found mainly symmetrical examples so far. Can you find any that are asymmetrical? Any set of lines that cross over each other such as the shapes between the tiles or the linear structure of scaffolding, gates, roads at traffic lights could be called a cross or star shape.

Module 1; Chapter 1 -- Research imagery: Stars

The following sets of images are a collection of star shapes in various guises, both natural ad pieces of artifice, collected from a range of natural history, textile and gardening magazines.