Zentangle Lace

While reorganizing my cache of black lace, this piece escaped and fluttered to the floor, landing in soft folds. It’s a machine-made length of chantilly-style lace. Someone added the velvet ribbon, turning it into a scarf. The design made me think of zentangles, the wildly popular doodly patterns that so many collage artists and quilters like to draw or stitch. The majority of chantilly laces were floral designs. This one hearkens back to a whole range of Victorian fabrics that were inspired by coral branches and seaweed.  The designer of this lace varied the patterns and densities of the ground and the background using dots, crisscrosses and zigzags, just like a modern-day zentangle doodler. Hmmm....Where is my sketchbook?