The most time-consuming but the most flexible of the lace-making arts, needle lace is regarded by purists as the height of lace-making. There are many types of needle lace — i.e. lace made using a needle and thread. Some of these laces can be made much more quickly than the finest of bobbin laces. On the other hand, some antique needle lace is made from a very fine thread that is not manufactured today.
As the name suggests, bobbin lace is made with bobbins and pillows. The bobbins, turned from wood, bone or plastic, hold threads which are woven together and held in place with pins stuck in the pattern on the pillow. The pillows contain straw, preferably oatstraw or other materials such as sawdust, insulation styrofoam or ethafoam. Bobbin lace can also be made using copper or silver wire instead of thread.