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!

Dangerously Beautiful?

I wanted you all to see why I was only distressed that I could not tat on plane on the way home -- not truly moaning about losing my plain gray Aero shuttles. All this beauty came in the mail just before I left for vacation:
Aren't they pretty? Having these declared dangerous and "not permitted" really would have made me cry!
The top shuttle on the right, and first to arrive, is a Dragon Shuttle made by Chris Hinton from The Shuttle Shop. The wood is beautifully veined and polished to a smooth lustre. Of course, the carved rendition of Ann Bruvold's dragon right there in the center makes it very special. Even more charming is Chris's personal "Hi" to me carved into the post. That's a particularly nice thing to do after I literally destroyed two of his winder shuttles during testing. I intend to take very good care of this shuttle. All the shuttles are posed in the Dragon Shuttle's new case -- what could be more appropriate than this silk-covered box I got in San Francisco's Chinatown? (Well, okay, one with a dragon pattern on the silk, but flowers are good, right?)

The shuttle on the right arrived next. It's a new Pop-a-Bobbin Shuttle from "'im in the garage" that I got from Jane Eborall's Etsy site. These great shuttles sell like hotcakes, so my timing had to be just right. I'd been waiting to pounce on the new offerings since Jane announced the posting time on her blog. This one is teak -- it sounds as exotic as it looks. It's also a very smooth bit of work, and I love the feel of the wood. Oh! It has a purple bobbin too! Wouldn't it be fun if bobbins came in every color of the rainbow? This is my fifth Pop-a-Bobbin shuttle -- greedy, huh?

My last beautiful shuttle actually arrived home the same day I did. Isn't it marvelous? It used to be a plain dull gray Aero shuttle until Joëlle at La Cossette agreed to try covering an un-neutered Aero for me. I like the length of the Aero shuttle and frequently have my fingers just above the winding post when I tat. Without the post, I'd drop the shuttle! I use the winder all the time, too. I told her any of three patterns (or was it four?) which were in her Etsy shop at the time would be just fine. I don't know how she actually picked the one I liked the very best! These are blackberries and are on both sides of the shuttle. I love that bit of orangy-yellow leaf on the bottom end of one side. What ever paper and medium she used to secure it has certainly altered the feel of the shuttle. It doesn't feel like a flimsy plastic shuttle anymore; it's much more substantial. Besides that bonus, the covering medium also gives the shuttle a bit of a texture making it easy to hold onto without creating any place the thread can catch. I think I need more of these pretty shuttles.

There's just one more to see. This one I've had for quite some time, but it's another shuttle that doesn't travel with me. This one was made by David Reed Smith. It's very light wood with a small, flat brass hook set into the end. It's very nice to work with. Can you just see a double-shuttle project with this on one thread and the Dragon on the other? Nice image, eh? Anyway, not content with just the shuttle, I also got this crochet hook in a turned case. The hook pulls out of the end, reverses, and goes back in for use. It has a hole through the end of the long cap so it can be worn as a necklace or on a chatelaine. I wonder if it would make it through the x-ray machines at the airport? Ha. Well, I'M not going to be the one to test it, that's for sure and certain.

There. Now you've seen my at-home shuttles. The dull gray Aeros are my traveling shuttles. I've always got one in a contact lens case with a pair of fingernail clippers and a couple of extra bobbins of thread so I can make butterflies or caterpillars anywhere.

Dangerous!

No, no -- not the beach or the sand or the sun or the wind. Cancun, Mexico is a lovely place. Those Caribbean blues in the water were perfect -- I understand some of the thread dyes now!
The hotel was marvelous -- the only places with four walls, doors, and windows were the individual rooms and a couple of the restaurants. Everything else was open, on patios or under palapas. The people were marvelous and so patient with my very poor Spanish. I can count, say hello and goodbye, and know a smattering of other useless words (like sombrero, and burro -- fortunately "Coca-Cola" and "Fanta Orange" appear to be Spanish.)
Chichen-Itza was a wonder, truly. I never realized how large the area is and how many buildings there were. The building precision was amazing to see, and the carvings equally so.
Cancun was a lovely place for a wedding! (Nope, not mine -- my niece's, which made it even better.)


So...what's dangerous you ask? I'll show you:

Yes. It's the dreaded Aero Shuttle in all it's drab grayness. I flew down to Mexico with six of these weapons in my carry on bag and happily tatted in the plane all the way down. I came home without six of these dangerous items. I do hope you all feel safer in your homes and in the skies.



However, just so you know, these are NOT dangerous:

Go figure.


Let this just serve as a reminder (which I didn't even think about) that just because you can travel through the airports in your own country with your tatting shuttles, knitting needles (my sister's are gracing some airport security lockup in Cancun), and crochet hooks, it doesn't follow that you can travel with them in some other country. Perhaps on my next trip my nice wooden lucet will have to come along for the ride.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Dad and Akari!



















Iris Niebach "Cactus" - color photo-manipulated.

Koinor Butterfly and Rings Only Practice

While I've got the opportunity to use Mary Konior's book "Tatting Patterns" (because a very nice person let me use hers for a while), I'm trying out the small patterns. This one is a rings only butterfly. It's tiny little head is a knot hidden down there by it's wing, so I made the antenna extra long. Thread spaces are usually so difficult for me to make even. The way this butterfly is made, though, the thread spaces are less critical. Its not blocked in any way -- just set on my new scanner (the old one gave up the ghost after 13 years of trusty service). It looks pretty good, if I do say so m'self. Not only that, I think the colors might be more true to life than on the old scanner.
This is my sister's dark and light rainbow on a size 30 DMC Cebelia base. It measures 1 3/4 inches (4.5 cm) across at it's widest point, and even though it doesn't look square, measures the same at it's tallest point.

One Last State Fair Post

This is our little corner at the Fair. The Bonneville Tatters are fortunate enough to have a wall space where we demonstrate tatting during the State Fair. Wendy is the secretary of our guild. She brought a large square doily to work on. That empty chair is mine. I was working on a bit of brightly colored edging. We were giving away the bookmarks on the corner of the table -- each one has a little scrap tatting (butterflies, caterpillars, flowers) glued (please pass the smelling salts!) to the paper.
Having bragged on my own tatting, I thought you'd like to see all the other tatting at the Fair this year (if there was more than this, they hid it!):

Unfortunately, the Fair people lost the crystal globe off the little red and white tatted lighthouse (they didn't seem to be too concerned about it either!)

I thought these bobbin lace covered ornaments were worth showing off. They almost makes me want to learn to fuss with all those bobbins! Aren't they pretty?!

The best of show in the needle arts this year was a beautiful knitted tablecloth. Okay, I can see why it got the best of show.

All you tatters out there: Find out where your county, regional, state or whatever fairs are held. Find out if you can enter your tatting! Get it out there in front of the public. Show off then brag about it!