Where it all began…

IEddy Faber Bobbins is a team effort between myself and my partner Jo Buckberry. We started trading in 2016 after I was made redundant and was not having much luck with job interviews. Our connection with the Lace world started a long time before that: Jo was the first to be involved and I used to go to lace fairs along with her.

Jo was first shown how to make lace by her Grandma when she was little, but only really started making lace when she was a post-graduate student at Sheffield. She was taught by Phyllis Brown, who is an amazing teacher, and has since been taught by other wonderful lace teachers including Christine Springett and Denise Vickery.

The #peskyknittedcavemen joined the business to help with marketing. They were knitted by my Mum. We are yet to find anything they are good at, apart from eating cake.

Although I had gone with Jo to lace fairs (mainly to carry the bags and coats but I enjoyed looking at the antique bobbins), I didn’t really get involved with lacemaking until 2010, when I went on one of the Aston Cantlow bobbin turning weekends run by David Springett and Stuart Johnson. I had never tried wood turning before. I thought it would be a bit of a laugh and a good excuse to have a weekend away with Jo who was on the lacemaking course with Christine Springett. As it turned out, I really enjoyed bobbin turning and kept going back to the course until David and Stuart decided to stop running them. After that, I turned bobbins on my own lathe, making them for Jo and some friends, and just kept learning how to improve my turning.

Eddy with David Springett and Stuart Johnson at the Makit Christmas Lace Fair at Cranmore Park