Hello All
A friend is considering making beautiful bones awls and needlecases, (he is currently making bone lace bobbins which are beautiful beyond belief), and he would appreciate some of your thoughts on what you'd like as needlework candy........
Does an awl / needle case combination work as an idea - is it something that stitcher's would find appealing / useful or do they prefer their awls to be awls and their needle cases to be needle cases?
What length might be considered perfect for an awl? It is very hard to find clean bone of length so he's thinking of making them in two pieces. Rather than just join two pieces of bone together and make a solid awl he could go the extra mile and make them double up into needle cases as well - is that sensible or just plain mad?
3 I've seen a lot of awls that are a smooth taper from one end to the other - is this preferable or just the "tradition" of some awl makers? I did wonder if this type of smooth awl was used to push right through a piece of fabric and out the other side like a needle in which case I would assume that turned bits in the shaft would be a nuisance as they would catch as they were passed through?
- Do you prefer the points of the awl to be very sharp or just a soft point. It's amazing how sharp a piece of bone can be made!
- Would an awl with a flat side be good so it didn't roll off the work?
- Could decoration be run right to the point of the awl or is a clear area near the point desirable?
- What do you think to the idea of a windowed awl like the hollow bobbins? I appreciate it would have to be stronger than the bobbins with thicker walls but could it work?
- Is the awl something that stitchers would have one or many of? Is it one of the main tools of the stitcher or just something that is used occasionally?
- In terms of the handle of the awl - is it better to just not try and have a defined handle area so it can be treated like a big needle or is the idea of a handle that can be pushed with the heal of the hand desirable?
I love to encourage someone interested in making items of great beauty and function, and any opinion/input will be much appreciated.
Cheers
Joanne