Motif Seventeen

I keep telling myself - "I will blog at least once a week, I WILL blog at least once a week!" It doesn't usually happen though. Tax season is here, and it's a little bit busy. Besides that, I have a show in 3 1/2 weeks (inventory! I need inventory!), and trying to establish a presence on Etsy is time consuming as well. Add to that a couple of orders and voila! No spare time.

Today it is icy and snowy in the northeast, and I woke up with a bit of a sore throat, so I'm home. No taxes today. I'm washing and blocking some tatting, and tatting some new things, and I though I'd do a post on the blog as well.

Just in time for Valentine's Day - a heart! This is a pattern I started using a while ago - it is a combination of some different patterns from the web - none of them are exactly like this, but they are similar (I mean, all hearts are a similar shape, so, when tatting, a lot of people come up with a similar way to arrive at that shape). As I've mentioned before, when adding beads, or transforming a piece of tatting into jewelry, there are some adjustments in stitch count or the way things are joined to help things lay better, or look a certain way.

I hope you can tell by the scan - this is no normal tatting thread. For those of you who are adventurous and like a challenge, may I offer to you "Petite Very Velvet" thread. It is made of 100% nylon and is hand-washable. It comes in about a dozen beautiful colors. Normally used for cross stitch, this gorgeous thread tats up about a size 10. When finished, it is a little bulky, but also plush and soft and beautiful.

***DISCLAIMER***

This thread is not for the faint of heart. It is also not recommended for tatting beginners, those with little patience or anyone who tats very tightly. It will break fairly easily, rings will not close tightly sometimes, and don't even THINK about trying to make a ring larger than 3-3-3-3 with it. I cannot be held responsible for any screaming, tearing out your hair, throwing shuttles or any other act of severe frustration.

TAT WITH THIS THREAD AT YOUR OWN RISK.

In some ways this is like the metallic thread, you have to be really good at controlling your tension, have oodles of patience, and know how to add thread very well. Small pieces are best, or pieces where there are few rings and a lot of chains. I am working on a full necklace in black, but I dread working on it.

I have one of these hearts myself (I actually have very few pieces of my own jewelry, mainly the ones I wear to shows) and I LOVE it. It is so lightweight and soft, and I get lots of compliments on it. So try it out! Or, if you'd rather not test your frustration level with this thread, I am putting this one up for sale in my Etsy shop - feel free to stop by!

Motif Sixteen

This is what happens when you start doing one thing and it goes wrong - you've already spent time on it, so you turn it into something else. I planned on doing the entire necklace in this pattern, but it didn't want to curve nicely and when I added that ring that's in the center there - that did it. It put way to much of a bend in the pattern. So I just stopped it short and added a twisted stitch/split ring chain instead.

This is some of Yarnplayer's wonderful hand dyed thread - this is from her first batch of "Rhubarb Pie" that I bought sometime last year. I just love it. You can get some some yourself at her Etsy shop - yarnplayer.etsy.com

Motifs Fourteen & Fifteen

It finally happened.

I've been doing about 10 art/craft shows a year for fifteen years. Without fail, one of the most common questions I got was - "do you use a magnifying glass??" In the beginning I would just smile broadly and said, "no, never!" Again, almost without exception, the customer would pause, give me a look, and say, "Just wait. You will."

About two years ago now I noticed I was having some difficulty seeing well, especially with the finer threads. When customers asked me the question, I smiled and said, "No, not yet."

Well, "not yet" has arrived. After taking about a month off of tatting I had an order for black earrings. I wanted to give the customer some choices, so I made four different pair, two of them in thread that claims to be size 80 thread but is really more like 90-100 (it's Anchor brand and I like it better than DMC tatting thread but I do think it is finer).

I could not see it. I tried to count stitches and couldn't. "I am going to be 39 in a few weeks - aren't I too young for this problem?!" - I whined. But alas, I had to use my magnifying glass. Fortunately I have a large overhead light that has a swing arm magnifying glass attached. It worked great. I actually used it for the entire two pairs, just holding the tatting right under the glass so I could see it perfectly. It worked really well, much better than I expected.

I had to laugh, though, when I finished the first earring and put the magnifying glass up I couldn't believe how small the earring actually was! I had gotten so used to looking at it under the magnifying glass my brain was telling me it bigger than it was.

So anyway, here are the two pairs of earrings made with the fine black thread. Incidentally, so far I don't seem to have a problem with any other color in the fine thread except black.

I know, I know...you're thinking, "Just wait. You will." :-P

This is Rosemarie Peel's "Celtic Motif." It's the pair the customer ending up liking the best.

Based on a pattern called "beaded teardrop" by Betty Goetgeluck, I adapted this to better match a necklace pattern I like to use.

Motif Thirteen

Just for a switch I decided to post something other than jewelry - I don't get to make other kinds of tatted items very often. Here is an ornament I made for an exchange. It is made with one strand of DMC metallic floss in copper (same as the earrings in a previous post), and one strand of Anchor, size 80, in a similar copper color. The metallic floss is soooooo much easier to work with when combined with another thread. The pattern is from a small Japanese book that is not translated at all - so I have no idea of the title - but it looks like the author is T. Fujito and it is (c) 2001, in case that helps anyone locate the book/pattern.


I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. Enjoy the time with friends and family!

Motif Twelve

My life is way too busy. I need to take that "stop and smell the roses" saying more seriously. My life is passing me by and I have no time to enjoy it. Don't get me wrong - I love my life. My family is wonderful, I love both my jobs, most of the time I would be hard pressed to find something to whine about - but some days it seems like I am on the outside looking in and watching my life go by at the speed of light. How is it Christmas 2007 is only two weeks away? When did my kids get to be 15 and looking and acting more like men every day? When I tell customers I have been creating tatted jewelry for 14 years I think to myself - it seems like just yesterday I went to my first craft show and how could it possibly be 14 years ago?!

Well, enough rambling. Another original pattern here - but one I have been using for just about as long as I have been in business - a cross. Here are two versions, one with a rose and a beaded one.

The beaded version is relatively recent - I like placing the beads the way they are - dangling like that, but it is a pain in the neck and really doesn't work well because of the design of the cross to use that particular technique. I have to come up with something better. I would also like to do some beadweaving in the center of the cross but haven't had time to play with that yet - in January. (Of course, if you knew all the things I am going to get to "in January" you would realize I have way too large of an agenda for the alloted number of days in that month. Especially with tax season starting.)

It's been three weeks since I posted - I must do better at keeping up!