Motif Twenty-Three

I am almost done with the 25 motif challenge! It took me long enough. I've already decided to start again at one when done with these 25, in the effort to keep myself motivated to come up with new designs.

This one incorporates two of my original designs, a flower and a small butterfly. This is the second one I've done, although the first was in a different color scheme. I am already planning another one in yet another color. I like doing this pattern in the solid colored flower with variegated butterflies. The first one was a flower in sage with lavender beads and sage/lavender/gold butterflies. I'm not sure what color scheme I'll use for the next - I'll have to check my HDT stash! I've obtained one of Yarnplayer's coordinating mini-skein sets, so I may have to do a watermelon tourmaline color scheme; maybe a lovely plum flower with the pink/green/plum butterflies. I'm ready to whip out the shuttles!


Some designs are once and done for me. Either I don't like it once it turns out or the logistics of the design are difficult and cumbersome. This one I really enjoy doing, and to top it off - both this one and the previous one made in the other color scheme went home with happy customers, so this design is a definite keeper!

Just a little fun...

This little quiz was fun. I love Jane Austin, novels and movies. This quiz totally had me pegged - I AM Elinor Dashwood! Here's what it said: You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Take the Quiz here!

I promise I will return to the motifs in my next post, hopefully early next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

Wonderful Weekend

Well. I am still flying on cloud nine after my wonderful weekend. I was in Chantilly, VA for a craft show. I wouldn't normally say this, but thank goodness it was a little slow (crowd wise) at this show, so I had time to visit with everyone who came to see me.

That's right, I had some special visitors. In Chantilly, people still know what tatting is - and some of them have even actually done it! I met quite a few fellow tatters, which I will get to in just a little bit...first I want to say that when a fellow lace-maker, especially a tatter, buys one of my pieces, I consider that an extremely high compliment. That they think highly enough of my tatting to want to own a piece of it - well, it just makes my day, I can't really even express it in words. It is just pure joy!

So I met some tatters this weekend. One of them was a lovely girl who drove all the way from Richmond, VA to see my work in person. She had been on my website and on the blog, but when she heard I would be "nearby" she decided to take a trip, and I'm so glad she did! She was wearing some of her own tatted jewelry, a lovely black pendant and earring set - just beautiful! It looked great on her. My mom and I invited her into the back of my booth and we visited and talked shop for a while - such fun! She went home with one of my necklaces in Yarnplayer's "Watermelon Tourmaline" thread (great choice!), and the pin pictured here - I call it "Flora Victoria." I sure hope she starts her own blog to share her work with us. I never get tired of browsing blogs - how about you?

I also met a fellow tatter who has just about convinced me to organize all of my ideas and jewelry in book form, even if I don't publish right away. She talked to me for quite a while about wanting to preserve what I have spent the last fifteen years of my life on while I am still really involved in it. Of course, first I have to figure out those darn drawing programs...

There were other tatters, too - all of whom shared stories and talked shop with me. I never get tired of talking about tatting, and apparently, neither do other tatters! :-)

But when Kathy Nicklewicz walked into my booth on Friday afternoon, I could not believe my eyes. She held up a bag with a "Mercer, PA Victorian Days" logo on it and I knew immediately who she was. For those of you who might not know about Kathy, please see Sharon's blog post called "The Tatting of Kathy Niklewicz" from February 21, 2008. I had met this lovely lady back in the late 90s at a show out in western PA, which I mentioned in my comment on Sharon's blog. Little did I know that Kathy has internet access and has been paying attention to all things tatting on the net, and also remembered me from that same show! She made up her mind she was going to come and see me at a show and she and her husband traveled all the way from western PA to come and see me in Chantilly. It was soooooo wonderful to see her again! I felt like I was visiting with a long lost friend.

She brought pictures and stories and we talked and talked about the internet and all the wonderful things that are happening in tatting these days, as well as sharing life and family stories. I am so hoping she decides to start her own blog so she can get out her own life and tatting stories to share with everyone - and Kathy, if you are reading this - you better e-mail me with any questions so we can get you up and running in blog-world!! :-) I am hoping she will also decide to write a book and preserve her tatting legacy for all of us. She is a talented designer and master tatter and we don't want to lose her work and her lovely, unusual patterns.

You can see why I am still flying high! Thanks to all you tatters who made this such a wonderful weekend for me!

Pardon me while I ramble...

I have noticed something for the last year or two that I have been muddling around in my mind and thought I'd report on it here. When I first started selling my tatted jewelry, most people I met - probably about 90% - at least had heard of tatting, and most of those knew at least one person who tatted, the most common being an elderly relative or neighbor or nun (if they went to Catholic school). I mean, my grandmother was the only person I knew who did it when I was growing up. It was also surprising the number or people who recognized it from crossword puzzles - "to make lace" - three letter word - "tat." At any rate, many did not know that the craft was still being done because they had not seen or heard anything about it for years.

That has changed. I would say that now about 50%-60% of the people I meet at shows have heard of tatting - again with most of those knowing about it because they knew someone who tatted. Now - it can depend on the show, it's location and promoters (for example, most people coming to a Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen show know what tatting is). It took me a while to process the fact, acknowledge that things were changing, try to analyze the reasons why, and figure out how I was going to adapt to this growing trend.

I think the main reason is this - this is hard for me to believe, because in some ways it feels like I just started yesterday, but I have been doing art/craft shows for the last fifteen years. In that time, a shopping generation has gone on, and a new one has come up - in other words, people that were teenagers when I started are now the customers I see in my booth. For them, even if they had an elderly relative who tatted, it was probably a great-grandmother, and they never knew her or saw it done, so they are not at all familiar with the technique. Also, because there are few of us out in the public as often as I am - people still don't see it being done, and although the internet is a nice thriving area for tatters to mingle, learn, and grow their craft - most people of this new generation wouldn't even know to search for it because they've never heard of it.

I think in the beginning I sold a lot of pieces simply because they were tatted, and the people who knew what it was were fascinated with this craft being used in a new way. Now I find I really have to be concerned about the design of a piece, have to watch color and style trends, develop my own particular "style," and my work has to sell because people like what it looks like on them, how it feels, and that fact that it is very unusual, rather than just because it is tatted.

When I started I enjoyed so much hearing people's memories about a mom or grandma who tatted. For them memories surfaced when they walked in my booth and they couldn't wait to share with someone else who knew what tatting was, since the never came across anyone else. I still get some of that, but it's much rarer today. Instead, I do a lot more education on the technique itself, introducing this craft to a new generation. For the most part, they are fascinated and eager to learn, and that is great fun too! Of course, I still share my own memories of my grandmother and how she taught me, and then tell them how it got started, show them how it's done, and encourage them to check out resources on the web if they are interested in pursuing it further.

So, that's my ramble for today.

And now for just a little eye candy! :-)

This is a pattern my grandmother loved to do - I've never seen it anywhere, so I think she just sort of made it up - she liked to just pick up the shuttle and tat away.

Please feel free to comment below on any interesting trends you've noticed while out in public with your tatting, or maybe hits or comments on your website, or what it's like being a tatter in your family or hometown.

Motif Twenty-Two

A number of years ago now (probably at least ten years), I purchased a book on ebay that had some very interesting patterns in it. Here is one of the links to it: DMC Library: Tatting (.pdf file) I'm fascinated by old books that have what I consider unusual techniques in them - often what you see in those older books in so similar, one book to another. This book stood out to me for a few reasons - one being that it used a lot of two-shuttle patterns - including things like josephine knots or rings thrown off chains, which wasn't all that common in other books I had (either from my grandmother or found at antique stores). It also combined tatting with some other things like crochet and netting.

The third reason was that this was the first time I came across what is known now as the "self-closing mock ring" - coined that by the Shuttle Brothers in their book introducing the technique in 1999. It is on page 32, fig. 16 - not only does the center ring look like a ring with rings on it - but the outside row also has what looks like rings with three rings on the the outside of them. I looked at it and thought, "how in the world...?" I think the instructions must have been pretty clear because I was able to do it relatively easily, as I remember.

I used it in a pattern for a round robin I was involved in at the time. I remember trying to explain how to do it - at that time it didn't have an official "name" that I was aware of - nor had I or any of the people in the round robin ever seen it before. I think I just called it a chain that was made to look like a ring (self-closing mock ring is really a much better name!).

Anyway, the book has a lot of other very nice patterns in it as well, and for those of you that didn't know it was out there - enjoy! Here is a pin I made with fig. 21 on page 32.