Happy Holidays!

No matter what you're celebrating -- even if it's just being off work for a bit (I'd like to celebrate that every day!) -- I hope you thoroughly enjoy this time of year.
Yes, where I am it's dreary looking (actually raining!), it's damp, and cold. BUT...I don't have to work after today until it's a whole new year; my sister and her family are flying in from Maryland today; we're all healthy; and the year was good enough that Santa Claus is coming to our house. Lots of things to celebrate.

There are tatting things to celebrate too. I won a drawing at the Lace-Lovin' Librarian's website and received the most wonderful little packet of goodies. I was wondering if the "Royal Fail*" had invaded our USPS, but they did manage to deliver a very pretty yellow satin pouch with a shuttle, some thread, and other goodies. I'll have to post a picture after the holidays. (I'd like to claim I'm having technical difficulties, but it's really that I'm having organizational difficulties.) I got a beautiful tin tied in a silver ribbon from my exchange partner at The TattingForums. I'll get a picture of what's inside on Christmas day and post that later, too! I'm certain it's good stuff, though!
Finally, I've got pretty shuttles to use now -- that should make all my tatting prettier, right? I'm anticipating some good days of tatting and chatting with family. I wish you all the same.

*Check out the continuing mis-adventures of the English post at Jane Eborall's website!

Flurry of Bling

This is the Flurry part -- Jane Eborall's Flurry Snowflake in bangles. It's really a great pattern (and even easier when all done in one color so the SLT can be skipped ... lazy, that's me). It looks wonderful in the bangles -- even if I did have a bit of trouble getting each spoke at 60 degrees from the other. The one done with Lizbeth's red, green and white thread is a bit wild, but I like it anyway.

"So...where does the bling part come in?," you ask with great trepidation. Yup. I did it again. The dollar store yielded up lots of pretty patterned tissue paper. Of course, it's rather seasonal. TA-DA! Holiday Shuttles! And, yes, those are a couple of little Clovers on the right end. I think the Aeros are easier to cover because the paper can be tucked under the sides. It has to be cut with much more precision for the Clovers. I like the striped one on the left side the best, but the minimalist blue snowflakes is a close second.

Addicted to Bling?!

Addictive, that's what it is. These 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. :)

Continued Bling and Snowflakes

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?

More Bling

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!?

More Covered Ring Jewelry

The absence of tatting on this blog doesn't mean I haven't been tatting. I've just been tatting things some people who read this blog shouldn't be seeing until after the holidays. This jewelry set (two earrings and a pendant) is for someone I don't know. My sister's co-worker loved her "mom earrings" (the ones with the nylon hooks). She requested earrings and a pendant for her sister-in-law who's just had a baby. She wanted earrings just like the ones I made for her (except in blue), so I had to come up with something pendant-looking that matched. I'm not too certain this is it. My sister's going to take them in and see what she thinks.
I made a draft without beads and it worked, so I added the beads, now some of the rings overlap a bit. If the pendant is too weird, I'll make something smaller. This pendant is about 2.5 inches long and 1.25 inches wide. The earrings are about an inch wide. These are all made with Oren Bayan multi-colored metallic thread and sizes 15 and 10 seed beads -- there are 94 size 15 beads and 12 size 10 beads on each earring. The pendant has 206 size 15 beads and 8 size 10.

This picture is from the scanner, that's why the six ring flower in the center of the lower ring of the pendant is blurred. I might get better results with my camera, but it's such a hassle.

To Bling or Not to Bling

To Bling or Not to Bling, that was the question...

Personally, I think it depends on who you are and where your talents lie.

Apparently mine don't lie with painting with fingernail polish at midnight.

I do show SOME common sense. These are opposite sides of the same shuttle. I can at least claim only one shuttle was harmed in the making of this post.

To clarify just a bit -- the shuttles are plain Aero-gray. I didn't paint the whole shuttle, nor did I cover it with anything. The flowers are painted with a pink fingernail polish and the leaves and stem are green fingernail polish. The pink had one little bristle in the brush that stuck out further than the others, so there are a few tiny pink dots on the shuttle you can't see at this size. The blue one is painted with blue fingernail polish and outlined with a black Sharpie marker. I don't know what possessed me to give it green antennae. I live in a household with two girls (one 8 and one 15). We have very nearly any color of nail polish you can name.

The Dreaded Cluny

The cluny -- other people can do them. Some people do them beautifully. Some people are really making an effort to make clunies and improve their personal technique.

I scribble. Okay, I scribbled once.

I think there might be one of these that looks pretty good. Mostly they look wider on one side than the other -- what's up with that?

My fingers are all thumbs when it comes to making the loom. You know if you don't pinch the thread right it all comes apart in a non-interesting tangle?

Wanting to learn and having the patience to do so are coming into conflict. So...I'll do what I do with most difficult questions. I'll keep it in the thinking stage for a while.

If you're thinking about it -- you don't have to DO it. *sigh*

25 Motif Challenge Numbers 12 and 13

Halfway through my ornament challenge...any the year is almost up. Ah, well, I may not make it -- fortunately there is no penalty. :)

These two are adaptations of Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel Glass Mat. One ornament is 2.5 inches and the other is about 1.75 inches in diameter. Both are made with white perle cotton and lots of little green glass beads. Just to be different, I pinned them to the ornament with sequins under the pins. I'm still deciding if I like that or not. I do think the pattern looks really good wrapped around an ornament. I might have to make more.

Seahorse Dragon

Anne Bruvold created this Seahorse Dragon based on Debbie Arnold's Seahorse. What a great pattern! It's rings and chains, no complications or advanced techniques. It's a relaxing piece to tat and at the end you get this really cute little guy.

My sister dyed this "Mermaid" thread on a DMC size 80. It seemed like the perfect thread for a marine animal. It's just 3 inches tall and a total of 2 inches wide from tip of nose to tip of wing.

I'm going to make more of these. I'm thinking a red one, a green one and some snowflakes on a styrofoam ornament. Yeah, cute!