Motif Six

This is part of a doily from the book, "Tatting: theory and patterns" by Jan Stawasz. As I mentioned in the last post, it is fun and interesting to take something and make it into something else.

Doily ----> Necklace. Fun!

I love olive green and plum together. Colors are another interesting way to enhance designs, and in jewelry, they are a large part of the overall effect of the piece.

The beaded chain is actually just beads, even though it looks kind of like tatting from a distance. In a close up view, you can see the beads are woven to form what look like rings and chains, so it matches the style of the tatting and looks uniform in the piece.

Etsy Buy Handmade ElizabethsLace

Motifs Four and Five

Ooooh two motifs all at once - I might make it to 25 yet...

This is another flower I created (I'm fond of lace flowers, yes). Again, it's not a new design, it's one I've been using for a number of years. But the other day I was starting one of these flower in olive green and plum, and I completed the center of the flower, and then thought, "well maybe it look nice if I just strung three of just the middle of the flower pattern together and made a pendant out of it," and low and behold, there was motif number five. You could even string a bunch of them together and make a bookmark.
So, when designing, you don't always have to come up with brand new patterns each time; use parts of an existing pattern but arrange them together in a new way, or just use part of a large pattern like a doily for something else like a necklace - that's coming for motif number six, which I will try to post over the holiday weekend sometime.

Etsy

I made it through tax season. Whew. Now art & craft shows are gearing up and I'm tatting like mad. I am going to post another design a little later today, but right now I'm playing around on the web...

I'm having fun with etsy.com. How did I not know this site was around?? I've been cruising around looking at all the fabulous arts and crafts all morning. What a wonderful resource. I've already bought some hand dyed thread from yarnplayer (check out her shop, all you tatters!) and had to mop up the drool off of my keyboard at all the other fantastic stuff on that site. Go ahead and check it out...you know you want to!

Etsy Buy Handmade ElizabethsLace