Glossary

‘french jet’ - black glass with manganese. Often mistaken for real jet. French jet is cold to the touch and more shiny. Real jet is warmer to the touch and has a softer sheen. Be very careful when you purchase anything purporting to be real jet - it could be ‘french jet’!

‘passementerie’- lacemakers were once known as passementiers. Passement or passemayne became used to describe trimmings made of gold and silver braid. The term evolved to describe collectively many forms of twisted, woven and stitched trimmings and ornamentation.

‘russia braid or soutache’ - a narrow braid with 2 cores laid side by side and bound together by a fine yarn in a figure of eight lacing.

‘rocailles’ - small glass beads, from the french for little rock or pebble, also known as seed beads or embroidery beads.

‘charlottes’ - seed beads with a single cut facet, which increases light reflection.

‘2 and 3 cuts’ - seed beads with 2 or 3 cut facets which give even more brillliance.

‘bugle bead’ - a cylindrical tube bead, which can be smooth, faceted or twisted.

‘bricked bugles’ - applying rows of bugle beads, by spacing them like the bricks in a wall. This gives a beautiful sinuous look, and equally distributes the weight, and therefore the wear on the ground fabric.

‘marquise or navette’ - a glass or crystal double-pointed spear shaped stone.

‘loch rosen’ - a round multi-faceted crystal or rhinestone with a central hole.

‘crystal’ - glass containing a percentage of lead oxide developed in the mid 17th century.

‘Swarovski crystal’ - developed by Daniel Swarovski in 1895 and now produced in Austria. Contains a minimum of 32% lead oxide. The company has patented innovative cutting techniques, such as Xilion, which give a superior brillance.

‘a.b.' - aurea borealis - a process used on the glass to give a rainbow effect finish.

‘kokosnik’ - Russian traditional style head-dress.

‘verm’ - vermicelli stitch, A traditional ground cover technique using a combination of bead stitches and blank stitches. Usually rounded in form (like the pasta) but can be angular as in a zig zag. This gives a fully beaded effect without either the weight, or the cost of a bead every stitch.

‘leaning boards’ - slanting boards usually with arm rests, used in the film industry to enable actresses and dancers to rest between takes in heavily beaded gowns which they are often stitched into, and were unable to sit down in.

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