meet the lady

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...and the designer/author from a century back! 

‘Die Schiffchen-Spitszen’,1920, by Frau Eleonore Endrucks-Leichtenstern

- German to English Translation -

original book: http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/endrucks/eleonoreendrucks-leichtensternschiffchenspitzenbook1920.pdf

translation of non-pattern pages: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-LzBnvzj7azCWLXJACSvcNHegXfP4fv_/view
Endrucks1920 Project: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view

banner/bracelet for #Endrucks1920Project

When tatters get together, magic happens!

It was Ninetta’s brainwave and initiative to have the 3 non-pattern pages from the book translated into English. She attempted it herself first, then sought help from the facebook community and soon we had volunteers willing to do it! And I am still amazed at what emerged!

While volunteers were busy reworking Endrucks’ patterns to modern music, Simone Beyer hummed away at the transcript and translation.

It wasn’t a simple translation from German to English since the book is in Fraktur font which had to be transcribed into regular font (this German transcription is included at the end of the doc). Simone went further, seeking and adding biographical notes with help from the historical society in the town where the designer last lived and died! Unfortunately we do not know if she had any descendants and there is no portrait of Eleonore even in the gravestone. Hopefully we'll be able to glean more in future.

Simone’s excellent English translation reveals Frau Endrucks’ tatting style, thoughts, and expertise within a contextualized framework. 

‘My book shows you the way out of the eternal monotony of all tatted lace so far’ -Endrucks,1920

Frivolousness is not in this designer’s nature! This comes through in the brevity of her instructions (Foreword). She dives right into a key to decipher her patterns, leaving the basic tatting tutorials to others books. Her focus is on 2-shuttle tatting and which of the 2 shuttles is in the right hand determines how to proceed with the pattern. Hence no reverse or turn work is indicated, picots are minimal, and multiples used when segments are repeated in a pattern.

She is no fan of decorative picots and read her Pieces of Advice to know why! We may scoff at a couple of her practices, for instance she asks us to resolutely snip off mistakes...opening a closed ring to fix a mistake appears to be a later development. However she advocates what we now know as 'false CTM' and tatting over tails! It also appears that the lock join was fairly uncommon in her time and she demonstrates it - 

We have tried to list the more popular ‘modern’ terms, wherever possible, against Endrucks’ instructions in an attempt to bridge the tatting language of the past with the present. This is where my meagre contribution comes in. One sentence that warmed my heart – ‘Be clear that one always, even when working rings, works from left to right’. This is the basis of my incomplete TWoT (This Way or Tat?) series! However I hesitated adding this to the pdf – it seemed too much like self-promotion ;-D

Whether you like her patterns or not, whether you will tat any of her patterns or not, I urge you to read the few pages of English translation when you can. It is very interesting. I feel as if Frau Endrucks is talking directly to me and thank Simone for bringing her to life through the translation! I’d also like to thank Jane Potts and Jacquelin Roth for participating and proofreading. And thanks to Ninetta for thinking of this and pursuing it! In fact, if Ninetta wasn’t bilingual, she & I would not have been able to collaborate so freely for so many years.

The image at the beginning is our banner/bracelet for the Endrucks 1920 Project. Ninetta tweaked the fun alphabet designed by Edda Guastella to tat this cuteness. We chose this because it is worked continuously and the letters have long block chains - both features of Endrucks' style. The fun letters can be bought from Edda's etsy shop.

As a token of gratitude we sent the pdf to Martha Ess and Georgia Seitz and this is what Martha wrote back –

Dear Muskaan and Ninetta,

Thank you for sharing this with me. I had groped my way through the introduction and afterword with an online translator and a German dictionary, but it is wonderful to have such a coherent clear translation. I think it is wonderful you found some biographical information for Fr. Endrucks as well. Good job, everyone.

Ninetta joins me in extending our heartfelt gratitude to Simone, Jane, Edda, and Jacqueline.

muskaan & Ninetta 

We'd love to hear your thoughts after reading what Endrucks has to say! Join the project if you wish - contact us through our blogs or through Facebook....
https://m.facebook.com/muskaan.mooskaan ; https://www.facebook.com/ninetta.caruso
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/ ; https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/endrucks1920project - #Endrucks1920Project