Hanging by a Hook

I've been making earrings for my brother. No, he doesn't wear them, he's going to give them away. I don't mind making them for him because I like him and it gives me an excuse to play with little beads and finish something comparatively quickly (compared to a doily, for example). I made three different pair for him. 

The first ones are a pair of butterflies. With as many butterflies as I've made over the years, this is the first time I've turned them into earrings. The third pair use gold thread and yellow beads and the covered-ring technique. The middle ones are from the Online Tatting Class which has been making earrings. I looked through the available patterns and found "Earrings '2015-V' © 2015 by Nina Libin" on Georgia Seitz's website and thought those would be nice. I'm certain they would be if I did them right or used the right stuff -- or something. The one I made was limp as a noodle and buckled. (I'd show you what it looked like, but it somehow got all cut up before I found the camera). I still really like the pattern, but decided I'd have to make it smaller if I was going to use a single strand of the Oren Bayan metallic thread and size 15 seed beads I own. I used only one of the rings and just did two chains around it. The center earrings are the result. Since I was making them anyway, I decided to make some for my sisters. These are obviously green beads on variegated metallic thread:

They are about the size of a US dime. I've got lots of other bead colors picked out to use. They are fairly quick to make -- once all the beads are threaded (it takes 58 beads for each earring). I can make a pair in a couple of hours and for me that is quick. Well, they are quick provided I don't lose the beading needle, the needle threader, the earwires, and above-all -- spill the beads all over myself.

One more from December

Christmas set for a friend. White size 20 Lizbeth, big red and white beads and smaller red, white and green beads. There's just not much to say about this one. The motif is very like the one I made for my aunt's earrings (I may have changed the stitch counts a bit). This would have been easily adapted to a bracelet as well, but my friend doesn't wear them.

Purposeful Tatting

I am just starting to learn tatting and I have a question...Off subject I am afraid but..... I see all the pretty things you make and wonder what do you do with them? I understand doilies and jewelry but what about the other things?

I make lots of things just to see if I can. I make things so I have an excuse to buy more thread, extra shuttles, beads, buttons, findings, and do-dads. I make things to create beauty in the world, even if the world doesn't know it.

What happens to all the stuff I make?

I use some of it. I have two lanyards that are used for either my name tag, or with a findings change, as a keeper for my sunglasses when I go on vacation. I like to have them available and I don't like to carry the case around. I have a beaded string (just like the lanyards) attached to my phone which is also attached to a stylus. My ears can be decorated for days and days using just tatted earrings. A couple of edgings and a motif with a button center decorate some of my t-shirts. We decorate our Christmas tree in tatting (and ornaments of sentimental value). I am considering making a bit of tatting in a covered bangle to hang in my car. That's just in the thinking stage, though.

  

Lots of my tatting ends up in a drawer in an antique dresser that belonged to my grandmother. That drawer is full of prototypes and series of pieces which were tweaked, redone, tweaked, done again, and finally ended up as final patterns. It has pieces which ARE my patterns until I can get them diagrammed or written down on paper (some of them probably never will). It also has all the stuff I've made that hasn't been given away -- yet. Some of it might never go anywhere but the drawer until after my time. 

Some of it gets given away as gifts. I'm not interested in selling my stuff because I make it for entertainment. I have a job and I don't want another one. Turning a hobby into a job is a good way to ruin its entertainment value for me. That said, I have, occasionally, sold some of my work -- when I could find someone willing to pay for my time.

I have to laugh because you understand doilies and jewelry. I understand jewelry. However, even though I make them and enjoy them, I don't understand doilies. They are the queens of my tatting drawer.

So -- what do the rest of you do with all that stuff you tat?

Time Keeps Slipping Away

Where does it go? I think time must be like escalator steps: there's an unused pile of it in someone's basement, and I would like to have it. It's not that I've not been tatting, and crocheting, and any number of other things; I have. Time to sit at the computer? Then there should be time to clean off my desk. No, no, don't have time for that, so I must not have time to sit at the computer. There. (Yes, that's just where the mess sits -- there.) Time to take pictures of tatting? Then there should be time to put away all my thread, string and yarn. As if. That's a little too drastic.

However, I did enter all my stuff in the State Fair as well as the County Fair. (If you want to see what it was, look at the previous post.) Brag Moment: I got blue ribbons (first place) on everything and the little crocheted animals were considered for sweepstakes. I got enough prize money to buy a nice meal -- or more thread. I got thread. I don't have anywhere to put more thread.

Since last August I've been stuck on making little crocheted animals. I made some with size 20 thread, some with size 10 and most with size 3. I'm still making them. I gave away about a dozen and a half for Christmas, I think there are about that many still left in the drawer, and I'm spending recent evenings making legs for a purple and white zebra. My tatting has been reduced to mere minutes -- just enough time to take part in this year's TIAS (thanks, Jane!)

I do have some tatting to show.  My dad needed a gift for my aunt for their annual Christmas party.  In addition to some really useful stretchy fit-anything lids we got at the fair, I wrapped up a necklace and two pair of earrings.  My aunt doesn't have pierced ears, and didn't know I could make tatted ones with clip-on findings.  She was glad to get them and liked 'em too.  I used white size 20 Lizbeth thread and white-and-red-striped beads for the necklace and one pair of earrings.  The other pair of earrings uses large white-and-red striped beads and smaller white-green-red striped beads.  The necklace pattern is Patti Duff's lanyard; except that I did it with SCMR so I didn't have to load all the beads on the thread (I've misplaced both of my Tatsy shuttles!).  The earrings I just made up as I went along.

County Fair

The County Fair was different this year -- like it was only half there. Fewer entries, fewer vendors, fewer animals...you get the idea. The database with previous exhibitor names and addresses was either lost or ignored, so nobody got a postcard reminder of the fair dates and entry times. The Fair was also held earlier than usual, by about a week. Apparently, the people in charge of the exhibitor areas (not animal exhibits) are not the people who have been in charge for the last fifteen years. Those people decided to retire. They apparently either didn't train the new bunch, or the newbies decided they had better ideas. (Nah, I don't think they were really better ideas.) There were no comment cards this year, either. I miss those! It's always good to know where someone thinks your work needs improvement.

Anyway, I entered ten items and received three second place red ribbons:

Konoir edging, Original pattern ornament, Morgan Mouse Bookmarks

and seven first place blue ribbons. 

Renulek's Spring Doily, Original Pattern Doily, Halloween Card, Flowergirl Headband, Time & Again Earrings

Baby Afghan

The little crocheted stuffed animals I made from  the book Edward's Menagerie (#edwardsmenagerie) also got a Judge's Choice ribbon.

Edward's Menagerie Elephant, Zebra, Rhino, and Hippo

First of the Year

Marilee Rockley (Yarnplayer) has a new tatted jewelry book finished. (Hooray, hooray!) It's available as an e-book and in print. I couldn't wait for the printed version. These "Time & Again" earrings are the first things I've finished from the book. Of course, they're more interesting in the book -- Marilee designed them in two colors. I couldn't resist the silver and clear beads though. The way the large beads are put into the center of the ring is the easiest, cleverest way I've ever used. 

These are made with Oren Bayan silver thread, clear size 11 seed beads and two sizes of faceted glass beads.  The earwires are nylon instead of wire. I think the clear hooks look good with the silver. I can actually see covering these with lots more beads -- but it would change the delicate look.  These already have beads on the joining picots that weren't in the design -- really I'm almost as bad as Fox when it comes to beads!

State Fair

The State Fair is over and I'm starting on entries for next year.  So far what I have are really ambitious ideas!

I demonstrated tatting at the Bonneville Tatters table in the Home Arts building four times during the Fair:  twice with Tonya, another Bonneville Tatters member, and once with my sister and my niece (and once with Judy, but I don't have a picture with her).  My sister has been tatting for 5 days (not all this year!), and when we went to tat on the last day of the Fair, my niece, who is ten, had been tatting for about 2 hours.  She made a lot of little short chains -- she called them worms.  Some guy asked her what their names were.  She gave him a strange look then said, "Wormy and WormyTwo."  She proudly placed them under the clear plastic cover on our table with all the other tatting bits and bobs.

This is the first year I've entered as "Advanced Amature" -- according to the Fair rules after entering for five years you've got to move up.  I did it a year early because I figured if I was going to enter stuff I'd designed, that had to be advanced.   I entered eleven pieces of tatting and came home with nine first-place blue ribbons and two second-place red ribbons.  It cost me $11 to enter, and I also came home with a check for $31.  Not a high-paying proposition, but certainly a lot of fun.

 The ornaments and the butterfly are the same ones I entered in the County Fair, but I had to add a bookmark tail to the butterfly to enter it in the State Fair.  I added a coil-less safety pin to the back of the Grapes from Karey Soloman's class at Shuttlebirds to qualify it for the wearable (flat) tatting category.


There are more categories in the state than the county, so I made some new things for the State this year.  In the jewelry category I entered a necklace and matching earrings which are really Patti Duff's lanyard pattern with smaller thread and bigger beads.  I found these beads that look like crumpled tinfoil, and really like the way they turned out.    For the Halloween suncatcher, I used the center of Linda Davies' new Classic Doily fitted into a bangle with black thread.  Then with invisible thread (it was 3:00 in the morning on entry day!) I sewed on my Ripley the Ghost made from Jeff's Hamilton's pattern. (Thanks so much for sharing, Jeff!)   It turned out really well (especially for 3:00 in the morning).

The other new things I entered were a Tatted card (I sewed the Celtic motif on a card with invisible thread about 2:30 in the morning), and the swirled square motif I made up a few months ago.  The comment I got on the card was that white on white was not a good idea (lots of things seem like good ideas at 2:30 in the morning), and it was not evenly blocked -- too true.  The comments on the motif were that I pulled some of the rings too tight.  It probably looks a little warped, but second place is still cool.


The Classic Doily by Linda Davies that I test-tatted for her was large enough to enter in the centerpiece category.  It was very well received by the judges -- they like classic and white, and they liked the pattern of this doily.  Thanks, Linda!  I also entered the two-toned purple doily in the "doily" category.  Unfortunately the pretty sunset doily I entered in the County Fair was in the same category as the purple one in the State Fair and it's one entry per category.  I would have entered the other as an edging, but the only edgings categories are for hankies and pillowcases.  (Gotta get working on those for next year).

The lovely Utahraptor got a nice blue ribbon.  I got a note on that one, too.  It said if I'd done a better display it would have been considered for sweepstakes.  Well, rats.  I didn't do this display.  The people who took in entries at the fair pinned it to this board with big "T" pins -- I didn't have any choice in the matter (boy do I sound grumpy and unappreciative and sour-grapeish or what?!).  Anyway, next year I need to make a stegosaurus and put it on a proper display board with invisible thread, not with "T" pins. 



Finally, there's my lone piece of crochet.  I chose the pineapple doily after fussing about it for a while.  Pineapples are my favorites, after all.

There now.  Aren't you glad I'm done blathering?


Oops, not done -- someone asked if there were any categories I didn't enter.  Yes.  I didn't enter the ones with the red "x" on them in this list.  I need to get busy if I'm going to enter in every category next year!

Still Fair

These earrings are my first try at Beanile lace tatting.  I used one of Nina Libin's free patterns.  They're made with Oren Bayan silver metallic thread and forty-bazillion size 11 blue glass seed beads.  I had to change the top a bit to get them to work on my "mommy earwires" (which are not wire, but nylon). 

As you can see, I got a nice second place ribbon for them.  The comment card said "beading should lay flat, so work is too tight"  Yes, I wondered about that.  I seem to have to add a stitch or two here and there to various patterns to get them to lay flat.  That or block the bejabbers out of 'em.  These I didn't block at all, so I think I'll be taking them off the card, blocking, then putting them back on the card for the state fair.  Unless I find a spare few hours to make new and better ones (as if).

They're pretty, though, aren't they?  Just say "Yes!"  :)

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.

Ribbons from the Fair - part 15

Back in early May I made this pendant (using ideas from Jon Yusoff) which I gave to my sister for her birthday. She never really nagged about matching earrings, but she did mention it ...oh... about forty-'leven times! There was a category for jewelry sets (two or more pieces and a pair of earrings counts as one piece) at the Fair. Good excuse to make those matching earrings. They are also made with the Oren Bayan multi-colored metallic thread and size 15 seed beads. They're supposed to look like leaves.

I don't know if the judges saw leaves, liked the color or exactly what -- but these got a sweepstakes ribbon. (wheeeee -- one of the Big Ribbons!) They're going to the State Fair, where they will compete against other multi-media jewelry, not with the tatting. It'll be interesting to see how they "fair" in that venue.

Ribbons from the Fair - part 10

I've posted these earrings before -- last October. They're made with Oren Bayan multi-colored metalic thread and tiny little blue beads. Like the rest of my jewelry, they were originally entered as "Creative Arts: Jewelry-mixed media" but got moved to the Home Arts, where I could compete with myself. *sigh* These got a nice blue ribbon -- but as you can see in the first picture -- got buried under the ribbon and tags in the Fair display. (Huh, getting a ribbon's not good enough -- now I gotta have location, location, location!) Anyway, I was pretty chuffed about these, because they are my second favorite pair of earrings. (I've got a pair of heavily beaded silver ones that I wear almost every other day!)

Ribbons from the Fair - part 4

This is my sister's Christmas jewelry set -- made from a Yarnplayer pattern called "Dream".

I originally entered it in the "Creative Arts" section of the fair as "Jewelry - mixed media". Well, that's what it is. After we were all done, the person taking in the entries decided that tatting didn't belong in creative arts or in the jewelry. She took it all over to the "Home Arts" area and they just wrote in new tatting categories for it. *sigh* Mine was the only tatted jewelry entered, so I competed against myself. I do wish it had been left to compete with the rest of the jewelry. It will be in creative arts as mixed media jewelry for the State Fair, because they don't just write things in if they feel like it.

Bonnie used to have an inexpensive necklace with these little bells on it that she wore at Christmas. One of the girls decided that the bells would look better used another way and ...well... chopped it up. She rescued the bells, but no longer had any jewelry. With as many bells as she had, I was able to make her two sets: one red and one green.

Good thing I entered the red set -- the only green ribbons they give out at the fair are those big sweepstakes ones! Of course, red ribbons with the green set would have just looked even more Christmasy, wouldn't they?

I suppose when I give the set back to her I could give her the ribbon, too. She could tie it over her ear. ;)

Oh...I apparently need to practice my chains to because they judge said they are all inconsistent. *sigh* Actually, what I read on the note was that the "chair types were inconsistent". I looked at it blankly and thought "What chair?" Rest...I need rest.

Jewelry Break

Very simple earrings on a ring and a pendant to match. The pendant would have matched better -- but I ran out of thread on both shuttles. The loop for the chain is a lock chain with a bead at every lock stitch. It looks quite nice up close and personal. I couldn't get a better picture (because I'm not a photographer).

These are made of a multi-colored metallic Oren Bayan thread and over 300 mini-seed beads. The beads are so tiny I couldn't even get my size 16 crochet hook through them so I could put them on the joining picots. That's right -- there are naked picots right there in that picture.

Just as soon as I get a padded envelope for the pasteboard jewelry box they're in, I'm shipping these off to a friend. She gifted me with a signed copy of her first novel and I'm doing my best to reciprocate!

Well -- back to the ornament covers. I've got another done, but am struggling with getting it on the ornament. After covering 25 of these slick plastic ornaments, I might be certifiable.

Earrings

Yup. Earrings. I've been making 'em. I haven't been using a pattern, just Jon Yusoff's method for covering rings. There are four stitches over the cabone ring between each beaded ring. Oren Bayan metallic threads are the best I've ever used. That said, I must admit that the silver ones were made with DMC metallic. It takes a little longer and I have to work a little looser, but I like the look of the metallic threads. The multi-color and green ones have really tiny beads. I found a new bead store not too far from home, and it had all these really tiny seed beads. I think they are 15 or something like that -- I really can't read the codes on them. The best I could manage was to read the price. That wasn't really tiny. Sigh. They were worth it, though. You should see me when I drop one -- no, you shouldn't; it's too embarrassing. The blue beaded earrings are mine, the green ones are my sister's and the bottom two are for friends of my aunt (those two are garnering me a small remuneration -- enough to buy some more beads). Oh, the reason you can't see the hooks on most of these is that the are nylon hooks. I put beads on the shanks. The green beads barely fit and the blue beads were a total no-go, so my earrings have gold hooks.

State Fair

This post is going to look like a re-run of the county fair -- in fact, I'm using the same pictures, just changing the ribbons. If I wait until I can get all the stuff back together with the ribbons, I'm never going to get this done. There aren't 24 hours in a day any more. I'm certain something has happened to the physics or something and there are only about 6. But -- I digress -- the State Fair was held very nearly a month ago (September 10-20). I demonstrated tatting on four of those days -- three evenings from 6 to 9 and one day from 10 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon (but I took the whole day off work, lovely). Here are the pictures:
I ran out of categories in tatting and had to enter my tatting-covered purse in the "large bag" category. I'm not much of a seamstress, and I don't think they knew I used a worn-out pair of jeans on purpose. I did get a comment on it "Lots of Work!!" Well, yeah. It was interesting to see the difference between entering it in miscellaneous tatting in the County and entering it as sewing in the State (especially when it was the tatting that was new, not the purse). I'm going to be more careful about picking categories if I do this again!

The only new things I entered were a bookmark (there is a category just for tatted bookmarks!) and a "wearable motif". The bookmark is "Honor" from Sherry Pence's The Exquisite Collection of Tatted Butterflies with an added tail to turn it into a bookmark. The judges liked it. That was good, because I like it too. The wearable motif is my original pattern for a t-shirt decoration made with buttons. For this shirt, I made single diamond motifs to match and sewed them on the sleeves.
The State Fair gives money prizes. In the categories in which I entered, they pay $3.00 for a first place and $2.00 for a second place, third and fourth places get ribbons. I got 6 firsts, 2 seconds, and a fourth in Home Arts and 1 first in Creative Arts. I am a rich woman now. [uh-huh, as if] I got one check for $22.00 from Home Arts and a check for $3.00 from Creative Arts. Considering it cost me $11.00 to enter all that stuff, ending up with $25.00 felt pretty good. In the first flush of ...well, actually, greed... I thought maybe I'd get out the list of categories and start now to make something in every one. But then I noticed one was "tablecloth - tatting". Uh-uh, I'm not tatting a tablecloth! My sister suggested I purchase a small doll table and make a tablecloth for that. I don't think the judges are that liberal, really, I don't.

Fairly Floating

The earrings I tatted, using Jon Yusoff's techniques for covering a ring (and inspired by her earrings), had to be entered in the Creative Arts area. I ran out of categories in tatting -- they didn't have one for jewelry. These were entered in Creative Arts: jewelry, mixed media. They had to be mounted on a card to be entered. My so-called cards were cardboard cut from a boxed-something-that-came-in-the-mail covered with cloth. I stitched the earrings to the fabric so they wouldn't get lost.
Both sets were made for my niece (who modeled them in my original post about entering the Fair). The purple ones (made with size 30 Cebelia and inexpensive clear glass beads) won a first place and a high blue (that is, considered for sweepstakes). Those are my own favorites, but apparently the judges thought differently.

The high school my niece is going to has black and white for their school colors (somebody is in dire need of a dictionary to look up the meaning of color, in my opinion [ooooo, maybe it's me?!]). The second pair is made with size 30 white Cebelia and tiny black glass beads with a larger black drop bead in the center. The metal rings I used had a little hole there, so I had to attach something to it! I have to tell you my first reaction was confusion, then total amazement when we saw these in a glass case at the Fair. I really did win all the marbles: a blue ribbon, high-blue, sweepstakes, judge's choice, and Best of Show! Who'd'a' thunk? With the best of show I got a recipe book and this nifty bread basket. It has a square porous ceramic stone inside a zippered bag. The stone goes in the microwave for a specified amount of time, into the zippered bag, into the basket and keeps the bread warm. Wow!-- it would be even better if I still made bread!

Is it Fair?

I won't know until next week. Yesterday we packed our oxygen tanks and headed out to the Equestrian Center and County Fair Grounds to enter lots of things. (We have to pack the oxygen because the place is soooooo far out in the valley the air is thin [thus speaketh an east-bench snob].) I entered two things in every tatting category available, and one in "bags". My sister entered her crocheted baby blankets, shawl, and kitchen sets. They had a difficult time with her tie-dyed items. We thought they belonged in decoration on a pre-made item, but they thought she should enter them as wearable art over in the creative arts section. They finally let her enter her sheets in home arts but sent her to creative arts with her union-suit jammies and baby onsie. The girls entered things too. I think I should win all the marbles -- but then, I lost my marbles years ago and am always hoping to replace them. We shall see. I'm not worrying about it, though. There was no entrance fee, and I don't think there are monetary prizes either. This is just practice for the state fair. These are the earrings I entered (of course, I displayed them differently for the fair:

Still Ringing

Inspired by Jon Yusoff's wonderfully beautiful earrings, these are made from a bit of leftover size 20 Lizbeth thread. They have nylon hooks, which don't have the beads on the shank yet -- they didn't show up in the scan, so I cut 'em off this image. Next time I try this, I'm going to add some beads -- that'll make 'em more attractive, right?

I've been working on other things, but don't have pictures of some and the rest are for an exchange, so I can't show that either.

One Ringy-Dingy, Two Ringy-Dingy

Rings of all sizes -- cover 'em up!

Using adaptations of the center-ring snowflake from an earlier post, I've been covering rings like a mad fool. I've made two of these using Flora size 20 ecru thread (which is acceptable for the Festival of Trees), two with Day and Night Rainbow thread (a size 30), and one with Lizbeth Christmas thread (a red, green and white size 20 colorway). My dad has one of the rainbow ones, and the Christmas thread one. Hey! When he says he likes 'em he's stuck with them! I happened on two sleeves of bangles in a bargain bin, one is just silver-color and the other is silver and shades of green. I've got two hundred bangles to cover -- that's a lot of ornaments!

Not just ornaments, either. With a little more adaptation, the pattern can fit into these smaller hoops for earrings. I need to work on sizing (and counting, apparently) but these are for my sister's birthday -- tomorrow! They are made from the shades of green size 80 thread she dyed for me. You know, they'd look better if I had photographed them instead of squashing them in the scanner, because they bow out from the outer ring a bit. If she wore necklaces, I'd make a bigger one for a pendant. It's a thought for another time.

A Bit of This and That

Marilee Rockley's "Dreams" again -- this time in purple DMC Cébélia size 30 with a button closure for my 12-year-old niece. As I had so much trouble counting to 5 to make a zig-zag chain, this one is made with spiral chains of 25 second half ds separated by small split rings. I put the beads on picots off the split rings. That seemed to work pretty well for keeping them on the outside of the chain. The drop beads are just clear teardrops, but they are what she liked best.
Using that same purple and some mint green Cébélia with some shades of purple and green seed beads I'm making another bald doily. I like the center of this pattern really well. It's when I get to those three rows of chians that I choke on it. They just don't work for me. This one is now in the "thinking stage" -- I figure if I think about it long enough, I can come up with something that will suit me, and let me use the outer row -- which I find very attractive.
Finally, I've got Jane's TIAS3 up to Day 9. Poor, sad thing -- I think it's waving me off with a little misshapen hand. I do believe the beads were too big and inconsistently sized. I'm not too certain about the colors either. That pretty pink button is starting to look orange to me.
Now, I have to leave town for almost the entire month of June -- and my little old laptop doesn't have any capacity for wireless or high speed internet connection. I'll have to see if I can catch up on the weekends -- either that or start over. That would work, because now I know where to put in at least one set of magic threads! I'm wondering if three strands of quilting thread might equal size 20 thread (since I don't have any size 20 this one's all done with size 30). Maybe better thread and bead sizing would get it to shape up a bit.