Here they are for a closer look. (There are only 7 of them, this shows both sides of each shuttle.) The three on the left are unpainted -- that's the native gray showing through.
The green vines on the far left shuttle were made with two shades of extra-fine Sharpie markers. It has a big yellow chrysanthamum (at least that's what I'm pretending it is) on the opposite side. The flower and leaves were painted with acrylic paint then accented with Sharpie markers.
The purple and green stars on the second from the left are shiny metallic stickers with more Sharpie marker lines for accents with shiny little half beads stuck into the shuttle divots.
The third from the left is covered with tissue paper, stripes on one side and dots on the other. The flat half-beads stuck into the divots sit pretty flush with the shuttle body. This one is the easiest to use. Maybe because I only used two coats of decopodge -- or it could have been a better shuttle to begin with -- or even, it could be that the tissue paper makes it feel sturdy but still light. I don't know, but I like it. (I don't like it as well as the beautiful shuttles I got from
LaCossette though.)
The next three were all painted white -- but it took two coats and a bunch of touch up to get the gray covered. That's too much paint and it doesn't look that good on close inspection. The flowers are stickers with Sharpie marker stems and leaves. I had to peel away part of the paint and decopodge on part of the winder end of the red and purple flower one, because I couldn't put the bobbin on it. It looks a bit odd with that bit of gray showing.
The frogs are somewhat raised stickers, also accented with Sharpie markers. That black blob on one side is supposed to be a little fly. This one is the second hardest to use because of the raised character of the frogs.
The thread doesn't slide over them from the back -- but if you tat with your fingers behind the center of the shuttle, as I do, there's a perfect finger spot on this one.
The blue one on the far right has shiny silver star stickers on it -- and at least three coats of blue paint. It's painted on the inside as well. That was
not a good idea. The bobbin doesn't turn well in this one, but it's still workable, and I think it might loosen up.
I know they all work because I tatted these with them:
You all must recognize
Jane Eborall's
Flurry Snowflake. This is the greatest snowflake pattern I've run across in a long time. It's pretty. It looks good in lots of colors (these are my sister's
Bermuda Red and
Singing the Blues in size 30). It uses beads (shiny, I like shiny!). It's all worked in one round. It's uses the shoelace trick in the cleverest way ever. I even think it will fit in the bangles I use if I just make one of Jane's long beaded picots at the top of each point.
You know, sometimes I think the world doesn't know what it's missing because Jane hasn't got braincell number 4 in permanent residence. If she can be this clever with just number 3 -- she could clean up the world with number 4! I really, really like this pattern -- can you tell?
e rather speak for themselves, but I have discovered I like tissue paper better than paint. That gray one on the far right (the one with the red jewel in it's little bellybutton) is covered with silver tissue paper. It doesn't look much different than the plain gray Aero, except for the shine, until you turn it over and see it has Snowflakes on it. :)
Here they are for a closer look. (There are only 7 of them, this shows both sides of each shuttle.) The three on the left are unpainted -- that's the native gray showing through.
The thread doesn't slide over them from the back -- but if you tat with your fingers behind the center of the shuttle, as I do, there's a perfect finger spot on this one.
I've been playing with my plain gray Aero shuttles during the long Thanksgiving weekend (my office is closed the day after Thanksgiving, too). Seven of my shuttles are out of commission -- at least for the time being. I learned something on each shuttle and about each of the materials I used. There are some things I would never do again -- like paint the inside of the shuttle (duh). I will probably never do three or four coats of paint with four coats of decopodge, either. Oh, and I'll wait for the Sharpie ink to dry before putting the decopodge over it, too. Lots of fun goofies, but I'm hoping they work out anyway! Once they are free of the drying box, I'll put up some better pictures. Between cleaning, cooking, cleaning again and painting shuttles, I haven't done any tatting this weekend -- can you imagine!?
