who gobbled the sun?

A mini video – please disregard the static. It’s actually the sound of the fan last night!

A few days back, Lilas Lace started a Celtic earring tat-along on facebook, which she has now posted in her blog here. From a bit of Googling, I find that it is a variant of the 4-leaf clover symbol.

It was a small project, broken into extremely tiny steps, And it was true Celtic interlacing unlike the ‘faux’ Celtic I’ve attempted so far. 

I chose Bliss variegated thread because it brings out the interweaving clearly. At the end, the motif is inserted within a 3cm ring which I did not have. This was the other reason I chose a thick thread (size 3 or 5), to mount on a bangle. 

The weaving itself took a long time! Pinning it down helped me keep track. After many trials, I reached this stage, where a part of it is still wrong. Took a pic to refer and remember. Then it was easy to undo and redo the last bit correctly...

TIP : Always remember that each chain/line goes over-under repeatedly. After choosing to keep the chain left of each ring above (over), at the next intersection it should be below (under), then again over and under meeting up with the next ring.

Final measurement – 2 inch square.

Pretty happy with it.

Now to make a suncatcher out of it - my very first. Chose a bangle with 2½” inner diameter and scurried over to the Queen of Suncatchers – Sue’s (His Kid) blog! 

• Before starting, I tacked the overlapping chains at 4 points - peer closely to see white sewing thread knots in pic below. And notice all the tools I needed?!

Gold metallic thread to shine through the transparent crystals.

I first sewed crystals through the 8 tiny picots, rolling the thread around the bangle frame. I don’t how she does it … I had a tough time keeping the crystals in place.

Wasn’t satisfied with the look, hence added more crystals, along with small green bicone crystals. This time I simply tied and cut each thread! Easier to handle the sequence as well. Yeah, I’m still not comfortable sequencing the beads correctly for pre-stringing.

ecided to snip off the first round of crystals and continued with the rest. Huh, this looked much better. So that was it!

Now how to hide the little ends? Tatting over the bangle using a single shuttle, and hiding all ends within. (cover a cabone/plastic ring - scroll down to #5 for tut links). I enjoy this process as can be seen in my previous bangle projects.  

The air pollution has been so high, that it has gobbled up the sun. It’s dreary and difficult to breathe even inside the house. This is the best we could do this morning. Soon we will be literally caged in - next week we're going to put up toughened glass in the balcony, sigh. Sliding, yet not the same. 

Many thanks Lilas Lace & Sue !