trials and tribulations

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WARNING : Dear seekers of beauty & tatting purists, peruse at own risk. The blogger takes no responsibility for hurt eyes & sentiments.

My tatting is not always up to the mark. But even I am ashamed to show these pictures in public. Yet it is all part of the learning process, and each step helps as we comprehend & practice a new technique.

Ninetta’s Whimsical Curls ! *

These are Ninetta’s latest Alternate Method of Curling Rings, especially small rings. I had the good fortune of getting first peek into her brilliant tatting brain. However, when Georgia announced the class for April 25, I scrambled to try them all out during the weekend. This time, curling the small rings were a bit tougher than when I did the Curled Rings series. Curling itself is easy. It’s just that I could not always get them to face in the right direction :-( . So I stopped jotting down notes & focused on the why & why not. You can see all the failed as well as successful attempts interspersed throughout the chains.

Small Curled Rings (sCR) over Chain :

Trial 1: My first mistake was to try to tat the chains from frontside going in clockwise direction, thus keeping the curled rings in front.

In clockwise direction : 1^st chain has the FR & CR,

2^nd  chain - half moon curls,

3^rd chain - heart curls ,

4^th chain - button curls

Some ‘succeeded’ in wrong direction, some failed, some simply twisted around & curled over the chain refusing to budge !!!

Lesson – apply scientific method and change only one factor at a time. Also, use a size 10 thread when learning (Thanks, Mel)!

Trial 2 : Much better , yet many were still ashamed to face me ;-p. Ninetta came to the rescue & sent me this video and Then it Finally clicked !!! An Important point, which is clear in the stepwise tutorial pics, but didn’t register in my dense brain : turn the small ring at an angle of 180° before pulling the encapsulated thread to curl !!! The curling picot/space in the small ring should face down. Now I get it ! I was more focused on the instructions & not enough on the pics.

Lesson – read & look, look, look, and follow !!! That is what pictures are there for.  

Small Curled Rings (sCR) on Ring
Besides sCR on a chain, there are numerous ways to curl small rings on/through/over rings ! These are also included in the same pdf.

These Curled Onion Rings were made way back when Ninetta sent me her very first draft. I was very happy with the way the second one turned out.

Bracelets Capriccio : 

Now I felt confident enough to tackle her beautiful bracelets, which incorporate many of curling effects of small rings.
I opted to do all 4 in one continuous braid, with about 4 repeats each.

Anchor size 20 thread used (SH1- brown; SH2- cream) & wooden beads.

1. Version with balanced sCR

I reduced the stitch count here, to better enclose the bead. But more practice needed. Ninetta shared this video in class.

2. Version with unbalanced sCR

I like this pattern the best.

3. Version with sCR over a chain

The second  brown chain & sCR turned/twisted for some reason ; the cream ones came out fine. But I should've reduced the stitchcount for chains.

4. Version with CR

First ring came out wrong. Thought & thought, then pulled a down loop through the CR from below the split ring to curl it. It worked (this was my AHA moment). But Ninetta demonstrates a better method of pulling the to-be-curled ring through the split ring and then securing it with a picot join.

I still have a lot of practice to do on these whimsical curls, but am more confident now. This exercise & interaction, and then the videos, also taught me how a set of instructions &/or format can be read/understood/perceived differently by individual tatters because each of us has a different way of tatting – slight nuances in ways of holding, making the formations, tensioning, and myriad other details. What seems ‘easy’ to a writer or designer may be very difficult to a reader. I will no longer call any of my patterns or tutorials ‘easy’. Major lesson learned.

UPDATE : All videos have been uploaded to Georgia Seitz's Online Advanced Class videos

Many thanks, Ninetta, for sharing your immense talent . 

Hopefully goofs in my trials will be rectified in future :-)

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Practice Doodle – What technique ?!

And to end on another note of whimsy – here’s a doodle I made a year back while learning another new technique. Using 2 shuttles, I went where my shuttles took me. Can you guess which technique I was practicing (there is a ‘tell’ if you look closely)? Can you trace the path ? 

And a lucky coincidence - in the left Ninetta’s Quad 13 I made just before.

happy tatting and curling :-))

Related posts : What are Curled Rings

Some Ways of Curling Rings

More Curled Rings & cross pattern

Final options & earring pattern
List of All links to Curled Rings Tutorials

Trials and Jubilation