Wild Flowers

I've started on another jewelry-making kick.

This is "Belle", from Marilee Rockley's book Up and Tat 'Em. I've made it before, but it was easier this time because I now have a better selection of focal beads, including teardrops, so I didn't have to fiddle. The thread is "Wild Flowers" by LadyShuttleMaker. I still need to add a satin cord for wearing; what do you think, white or light blue?

Next up, "Grand Aura" earrings, from the same book, in the same thread, but not made to match.

The pink seed beads came from a vintage necklace I picked up with some other beaded jewelry for a few cents at a yard sale. The bicones are Swarovski; anyone who has worked with these will know that a photo can never do justice to the way they catch the light.

Incidentally, "Wild Flowers" is the second HDT name that I know of where Lizbeth now has a thread with the same name, that looks completely different. (The other is "Berry Burst" by Tatskool.) I know Lizbeth is not intentionally stealing anybody's names, and their colors are also perfectly well described by these names. But it goes to show that when we're talking about a color name, we've got to be careful to clarify who made it.

I realize I haven't shown a picture of Squijum lately. He's all grown up now, over a year old, and still as cute as ever.

Well, this is it. My camera has died. And no, it's not the battery; immediately before it shut off for good, the computer stopped recognizing it, so it's definitely a problem with the camera itself. Luckily, today's photos were saved to the removable memory card, which I was able to plug directly into the computer. But I can't take any more pics till I get a new camera, so anything with large beads or other 3D components will look a bit blurry on the scanner till then.

Sweet Success

Do you ever want to throw your shuttles across the room when you're working a perfectly lovely and well-written pattern, because you can't seem to follow the directions? That's how I felt while working Jon Yusoff's Sweetheart Snowflake. Jon's directions are perfectly clear, but I still kept trying to join the long chain in round 2 in the wrong place. I would work a whole point and then have to undo it because I realized I had nothing to join to as I was coming out of the point, having made a join that I wasn't supposed to going into it. I finally got it right, though.

Then, thanks to the influence of Fox, I decided to add beads.

You would think that it would go better the second time around, but it didn't. I still had the same problem, which was all about me not paying attention, nothing to do with Jon's directions.

Since the beaded version is all white, I decided to finish it a little differently. Instead of starting between points, I started on the side of one point. This allowed me to finish by making a split chain at the top of that point, and then a split ring. After the split ring, I just left the ends long to make a hanger. You can only do this if you're using a single color; in two colors, the SC and SR will both end up showing both colors.

If I had been paying attention, I would have joined the first point of round 2 in the right spot to make the center bead stand upright when the whole thing was finished. I didn't think about that till it was too late, but I still think it's OK.

Sweetheart Medallion Again

I did Jon's Sweetheart Medallion again.

I really love the other one I did because of the colors in Krystle's threads and the sparkle of the beads, but I think that from an actual tatting perspective, this one is better. The two solid colors make the equal-armed cross stand out more, and even if you're not looking for the cross itself, the whole design just "pops" in solids. Also, the beads I added to the other one, while pretty, made me have to stretch it just a tad excessively when I blocked it so the beads in the middle wouldn't crowd each other; not having beads allows the piece to lie naturally.

I'm very happy with this result. Now I can keep the pretty sparkly one and give this one away instead!

A Tatted Rose

Connectivity problem solved. It was, as I suspected, a loose connection outdoors that kept getting jiggled in the wind. Usually it would pop back into place when the wind died down, but this time it didn't. It's supposedly good and tight now, so hopefully no more problems. And the tech even showed up within the expected time frame!

So, a tatted Rose. No, not the flower, my friend's daughter. In a few months, they will be moving to New York so that Rose can go to dance school, having already learned pretty much everything the schools here have to teach her. It was my friend's birthday this weekend, so I made Jane Eborall's ballerina.

Jane makes it all in one thread for a more impressionistic look. I decided to go for more detail to make it look as much like the real girl as possible; this meant I had to make a few changes to the construction, with a few more cuts and ties. All the stitch counts end up the same as Jane's, but a couple of things are done in a different way.

Jane has you do the head, body and skirt all in one pass, with the head as an SCMR and the body as a split ring. I had to make the head separately; in order to make the face and hair different colors, I made it as a split ring, making the JK bun with the second shuttle. Then I cut and tied and started fresh with the body; the body is a normal ring, and the skirt is as written. I added beads to the skirt. I found that using three beads per picot is too many beads for the space-- which in this case turns out to be perfect, giving it a nice bit of ruffle. I made the first and last rings of the legs separately to be the slippers, and the arms are as written.

The face, arms, and legs are in Lizbeth color 626, Shell Pink Light. For the hair, I blended DMC size 80 color 579, a pale yellow, with Tatskool's "Ginger" HDT, also in size 80. When I wind two threads on the shuttle, I make my stitches a bit looser, so two size 80's together work up about the same as a size 20. The tutu and slippers are Yarnplayer's "Night Wind" HDT. The beads are Miyuki delicas in a medium blue for the eyes and a light blue for the skirt.

What do I expect anyone to do with a loose ballerina? Well, you know any tatting can be turned into jewelry!

Good News/ Bad News

Good news: I have tatting to share. Bad news: My internet connection at home is down, and they can't get a tech out till Wednesday. Till then...

Equal-Armed Cross

I've gotten a few new shuttles recently.

On top, of course, is one of LadyShuttleMaker's ceramic shuttles with a hand-painted scene. Here's a closer look at it.

The truth is that ceramic shuttles as a working tool are not going to be to everyone's taste. But even if you never use it, I think that anyone interested in collecting shuttles should have one or two of Sherry's, purely for their artistic value.

The two wooden shuttles are by David Reed Smith, my all-time favorite shuttle maker. The darker one is pommele bubinga, and the lighter one is birdseye maple. I love the swirly patterns in these woods.

The first thing I made with my new shuttles is the medallion from Jon Yusoff's Sweetheart Set. I used Krystledawn's "Of Berries and Fairies" and "Fairy Faint" HDT's in size 40 and added a few beads.

By tatting it in two colors, this medallion forms an equal-armed cross (it's even more striking when you use two highly contrasting solids, as in Jon's sample). The equal-armed cross is a highly symbolic motif in cultures throughout the world; you can read about it here if you're interested.

Jon really just made this medallion as part of the set of patterns based on a simple motif she had created. As far as I know, she wasn't setting out to design something so deeply symbolic. But isn't it cool that it worked out that way?

I was planning to give this one away, but I'm not sure I can part with it. I may have to make it again.

Hey, Tatting!

On a tatting blog! What a concept!

In case you hadn't heard yet, the theme for this year's Tat Days is "Tatting in a Winter Wonderland". Once again, a quilt and other items are being put together to raise money for scholarships. Tatters are asked to contribute snowflakes to help other tatters who would like to go to the event but can't afford it-- and despite what the date on the website says, it's not too late! Erin is still receiving snowflakes and stitching them down.

At the top left, of course, is "Angels in the Snow", which I can pretty much do in my sleep by now. I went with Lizbeth thread for a nice crisp feel, in size 80.

Next is another design of mine, "Crazy Daisy", so named because it uses daisy picots and the first several times I tried to make it, it just about drove me crazy! In fact, I gave up on making it for several years because I was so intimidated by my own design. This time it seemed easier, maybe because my manual skill is catching up with my ideas. It's really just a matter of paying attention to what you're doing, isn't it?

This is done in size 80 "Snowflake" HDT by Yarnplayer with DMC white. Marilee uses DMC for her base thread, so Lizbeth didn't feel like a good match for it. Besides, aside from the crispness of the Lizbeth, which I like, the DMC really is the better quality thread.

I love these colors! The pinks and lavenders are not snowflake colors at all, yet combined with the pale blue, this colorway makes me think of shimmering snowflakes more than anything else.

Finally, my "Ice Crystal" flake done in LadyShuttleMaker's "Vicki's Lilacs" colorway, again in size 80. They are mostly asking for the donated snowflakes to be in appropriate snowflake colors, go figure, but there is a runner being made in purples, so I am hoping that this one will work with that.

Wouldn't you know, I'm out of stamps, so these will have to wait till tomorrow to go in the mail.