Barrette, and a Bead Coupon

So it's been a while since I've posted, again. I actually haven't tatted anything since then; I've been busy with harp and belly dance related things instead. I played a harp gig a couple of weeks ago where my music stand drape made its big debut. It worked beautifully. And this Saturday my belly dance studio is having its annual student showcase, and I'll be dancing in two numbers with the beginner classes. Naturally, there is a great deal of practice involved, especially since this is my first "real" performance; my costumes required slight tweaking as well.

This weekend, though, I did finally get a little bit of tatting time. Later this month, my cousin is getting married. I already have my outfit picked out, but I needed something for my hair. I tatted several small flowers and arranged them on a circle of green felt.

You can tell I'm out of practice blogging because I forgot to take photos of the individual flowers. They are all patterns by Linda Davies. Linda's flower patterns are always based on flowers that actually exist in nature. My versions, though, are not like the real flowers because I used the wrong colors (they match the outfit, which is what matters in this case). The light purple flower in the center is Linda's Snowdrop pattern tatted in Lizbeth 632. The dark purple ones are the Bluebell pattern, in Lizbeth 633. Both of these can be found in Linda's book From Petals to Pearls. The turquoise flowers, in Lizbeth 658, are the Queen Anne's Lace pattern which can be found on Linda's blog. To all of them, I added a 4 mm round silver bead which I sewed in the center of each flower (in the bluebell pattern, this bead would ordinarily be threaded into the flower using florist's wire; the snowdrop pattern also has a large bead but placed differently), and I also added a few more seed beads than the patterns called for.

I left all the ends long, sewed them through a circle cut out of green felt, and tied them off. I then trimmed the ends down and used a matching green tatting thread to sew an identical felt circle to the back, covering the thread ends. Next, I trimmed the doubled felt circle down a bit and sewed it onto a silver filigree barrette.

Finally, I have a little something to share with you all. The website www.artbeads.com, which is one of my favorites, sent me a coupon code for 20% off sitewide. Artbeads has a great selection not only of beads, but also jewelry findings, and especially the metal links and filigree ornaments that we tatters usually refer to as "doo-dads" that tatting can be joined to. To find these doo-dads on the site, look under Findings, then Links; also under Embellishments; or shop by material choosing the type of metal you want; and also under Swarovski components, because some of them incorporate Swarovski crystals. The e-mail specifically says that I can share the code, and it can be used multiple times. The code is BEST20, but if you want to use it you'll have to hurry. It expires tonight, Monday March 2, at midnight; I'm not sure which time zone that refers to, but I would assume Eastern. Note that I have no connection to Artbeads other than being a very happy customer. Enjoy!