Teneriffe work Doily

Last Sunday I went to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney to see the Narnia exhibition with my grandsons. In Nov last year I went to a lace exhibition here which was marvellous in the true sense of the word. I found a tiny room tucked away on the second floor called the Lace Research Centre. There are wonders there! Recently I bought this very beautiful doily from Vinnies (= Goodwill USA and Oxfam Egland) for 50 cents. It just has a couple of little holes in it. It has puzzled me greatly because I couldn't figure out how it was made. The leaves of the little flowers looked woven to me. I knew it wasn't bobbin lace or tatting. I threw it into a plastic bag before we left for the museum and rolled up at the Lace Research Centre to see if anyone knew anything about it.

The centre is manned by doughty senior women who clearly know their stuff in terms of lace. The woman in the handknitted beanie recognised it immediately as "Teneriffe" work :
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teneriffe_lace (also known as Nanduti). She gave me a book to describe the technique which I read immediately.

 It is done traditionally on a leather topped pincushion studded around the edges with pins which are used to make a radial (spiderweblike ) framework for the lace. The lace is woven on the framework. Now that I know something about how this beautiful doily was made I will treasure it even more. I don't want to make lace myself but am fascinated with the different techniques people have used down the ages to beautify their lives with textiles.