Pretty Posy Pendants

The first is another of Marilee Rockley's "5-Petal" pendants, in another of LadyShuttleMaker's HDT's, "Old St. Nick".

Given how difficult it can be to match reds, I was rather surprised to find that I had the perfect match in my stash.

Next up is a pendant made from Jane Eborall's "Small Motif" with beads added.

This time time I used Krystledawne's "Wine Berry" HDT. I couldn't match the burgundy, so I went for total contrast instead with dark and light blue beads. I put the dark blue seed beads on shuttle 2, and joined the light ones during the tatting. In order to put the large bead in the center, I changed the center ring to a mock ring because I find it easier to tat around a bead this way than with a true ring.

To make this into a pendant, I had to join a jump ring using this method. (If you're going to do this, please be sure and use a closed jump ring.) But I still wanted a seed bead there so this petal would match the others, so I slid the bead up after making the first half stitch and before the second join. Unfortunately, this made the bead sit crooked, and after several tries I couldn't find a way to straighten it within the tatting. The solution I found was that when I was sewing in the ends, I ran the thread through the bead in such a way as to pull it in the opposite direction, thus straightening it.

Note the difference in style between these two HDT makers: Sherry has very carefully made sure that the entire skein of thread was equally saturated with dye for her solid, while Krystle has equally carefully made sure that some parts of the skein received more dye than others for a shaded look. This is what I love about HDT's, no two maker's threads will ever be the same.