Motif Seven

Well, this one is...different. Not a lot of tatting, but then, I guess I am a jewelry designer first, so sometimes I have to translate the tatting into what I think is a cool jewelry design. At least there are rings. The rest if it is what I call "twisted stitch," although I'm sure there are other names for it. It's achieved by just doing one half of the ds.

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

Third Motif

Here is a pattern of Mary Konior's. This is from her book, "Tatting with Visual Patterns." She has a great eye for design, and I find her things very different from so many other tatting patterns. I did adapt it *slightly* to add the leaves. Of course she has fantastic diagrams of the patterns as well, which I find so much easier to read that traditional written patterns. It is how I document most of my own patterns - it's rare that I would actually write the pattern out "long hand."

I work for a tax accountant as my "other" job. Sadly, my boss passed away about three weeks ago. This time of year, that has put even more of a time crunch on my already busy life. It has also been hard because he was a good friend, and I miss him.

I have a show next week though, so the tatting must go on...and, truth be told, I have always maintained that tatting is good therapy. I have found that to be no less true during this this difficult time.