Tuesday 17 February 2015

Tatting Away XIII : end, upend, no end ?! Questions !

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I. What is it ?!
A Festive Candle ?
A pair of Peacock feathers ?
Lord Krishna’s Bansuri (flute) ?

  

II. What comes first ?
The cart or the horse ?
The tail or the body ?
The chicken or the egg ?

Sorry, couldn’t resist that last question ;-))
But on a more serious note, when tatting a bookmark, which side/end would You normally start with ? Body, you answer ?
Well, I have, so far, always started with the main body, & Then added a tail, tassel, charm, ….
Not this time !!!
I had the Tail Charms ready & needed a Body to go with it ;-P

 
I had tatted Jane Eborall’s Shuttle Shaped Motifs that I spoke about here – one complete & the other partial. What should I do with them was my concern, because the former was a bit large to glue on to my shuttle. Decided that Both of them would act as charms at the end of bookmark tail.
Thus began my hunt for a 2-colour pattern . After browsing through my pinterest board, , I settled on this Spiral Bookmark I’d wanted to try ever since setting eyes on it. 

Spiral Bookmark by Regina ‘Gina’ Brummet adapted from edging #1, page 23 in Tatting Doilies & Edgings, Dover Press, edited by Rita Weiss. (I have the book, but the pattern is now linked in Craftree, here, through keep&share).


 

My Notes :
  • SLT (shoelace trick) is a must each time the colours are switched.
  • I did directional (modern) tatting, hence everything was tatted from the front/right side. I did not need to Reverse Work at any stage.
  • It was a bit messy while working up one side, but once the other side started to join up, it all came along nicely.
  • Must read/skim through the Entire instructions/pattern carefully before starting the actual process of tatting ! I missed the turning chain part & had to unravel 2 closed rings.
  • Needed to increase the stitchcount at both ends. I Googled Images & most of the versions had in fact increased the chain length by one repeat at least.
  • Tatted in Anchor Mercer size 20. Aqua Blue (in Sh1) : 4054-0185  . Lemon Yellow (in Sh2) : 4054-0293
  • Bookmark measures 10”x 1¼” (without tail). Good for large-sized books such as encyclopedias & coffee table books. Shuttle charms : blue : 2½”x >1” & , yellow (round1) : >1” x ¾”

Initially, I was going to have both charms on a single Lock Chain. But as I worked, I decided why not have them as Separate chains ? Went ahead, attaching thread to one charm, tatting a LCh, joining to the bookmark end, & continuing down to the other motif.  Without conscious intention, I now have a Three-In-One Bookmark where the main body, as well as each shuttle charm acts as a page separator/marker at the Same time ! Great for when referring back & forth ! For instance our very own tatting binders – mark the pattern as well as the technique tutorial ;-)

The reason I was really excited earlier, was this gorgeous Candle pattern that emerges when the motifs are placed on top, acting as a flame ! (first picture on the very top) The best part is that both the flames & the candle can be tatted in one pass .


The shuttle motifs also work well as a peacock feather (mayurpankh) for Lord Krishna’s crown & flute !

You can see, I thoroughly enjoyed this entire experience, playing around with the pieces.
My sincere thanks to the designers for sharing their patterns. 


Now for the last question :


 III. Can you identify this tatting technique ?

To give you a couple of clues : It is done with 2 shuttles & in 2 rounds.

It is not a given pattern, I just went along while learning the technique & going with the colours in each shuttle. With a little bit of tweaking, these look like Two Intertwined Hearts.
Even if you can't recall the exact technique, I would love to hear what might have gone on in there ... think aloud please :-)

Happy tatting J


Motif # 13 / II for 25 Motif Challenge


9 comments:

  1. Your bookmark is awesome and does resemble a candle!! :)
    Also, your last project resembles an acorn(to me at least), but I couldn't tell you the technique. :)

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    1. Now that you mention it, Yes it Does look like an acorn ! Now to make it in the right colours :-) Will need to rework the stitch count - didn't write it down, just went with the flow.
      It is a technique on Karen Cabrera's video :-)

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  2. Love this bookmark pattern. I have tatted it several times. Love the two tail bookmark idea. So simple and practical and I would never have thought of it myself. To tat the flame using the shuttle pattern, do you have to overlap two different shuttle motifs? Can you acheive this look by strategically changing colors mid-motif? I don't know what the technique is, sorry.

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    Replies
    1. This is probably one of the more commonly made bookmarks - plenty of great versions in search engine :-)
      It was only After I made the 2 tails that I realized it's multi-functionality ! Sometimes altering the sequence throws up new ideas, is the lesson I learned here.

      I like your idea of a single flame with 2 colours !!! However, with this particular motif pattern it would be quite a struggle because it already has many split rings. One will probably need some sort SSSRs or something to create that effect ... something beyond my ken at present. However, if one chooses a more 'traditional' rings & chains flame pattern, it should be possible. I do like the idea, though, & may put my mind to it some time in future :-))

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  3. Love the book mark and the motif looks like a shuttle and works very well for a flame on a candle I was wanting to make all candles for Christmas time last year and now I put it off for next year. I can't not think of the name of the technique used in your last picture but have made it on an edging of little flowers from a blog which name escapes me for the moment she sells on etsy her patterns.

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    1. The 2 shuttle motifs together give a kind of dimensional effect, don't they ?! Hope you get around to making the candles this year :-))

      Carollyn, are yoiu referring to Iris Niebach's latest series of colourful edgings, etc. ? Most of which are floral & use 3 shuttles, and are simply Gorgeous ! Waiting for her new book to be published with those .... They involve encapsulation. Not the case here - only 2 shuttles, no encapsulation (except the 'tail' on top to hide the 4 thread ends).

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  4. Muskaan

    Beautiful musical rendition. So well done in the art to decorate the flute of Lord Krishna WoW!

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    1. Thanks, Usha :-D If Lord Krishna likes to play the bansuri, we like to play with threads & software, too ;-P
      I invite you back, Usha, in a couple of days, to see some doodle-tatting composition I am making for Holi....

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  5. I love the candle. Do you have the pattern for it?

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