primordial soup

Over-dramatic, I know ;-D This post is about uncooked, errr unfinished, razzmatazz morsels in minestrone soup. Instead of waiting for life-forms (tatting patterns!) to evolve from the primordial soup, I am ladling out servings to see but not consume :-D 

Last year I bought a stash of beads directly from an online shop most of which can be seen in this image. These include Miyuki, bicone crystals, drop & tube glass beads, drop resin beads, and so on.

In person, I wouldn’t have bought the bulkier ones. But it also got me thinking about how to use them. 

Playing around with some leftover metallic thread, these 2 little earrings came about. 

Single thread, picot flowers, free-style. I’m calling them Spring Drop earrings for obvious reasons. I intend to use each type of bead in similar fashion....

Recently, when test tatting Anita Barry’s Laura & Itsy-Bitsy Angels, I went on a tangent and this emerged. Played with some bead arrangements. Which one of 3 do you prefer? Do you see a Victorian era lady/gown? Made with single thread/shuttle, and the 2 rings on the side are regular rings folded over and linked. This can have no other name than Laura Angel Earrings.

Anita has this uncanny ability to spy/create heart motifs from vintage doilies, etc. She’s done it before - Daisy heart here and Hidden Rose heart here - to show a few that are in public domain. 

She calls it Eye Spy, and I got to playing as well. These are 2 hearts that I spied in the Elizabeth Round Robin Doily. There’s still a lot of work needed to get into desirable shape, whenever that happens.

Can you spy them in the images below?.

This is Elizabeth Heart #1 from Round 4 designed by Kathy Lowe 

I started tatting from the right side clover, going counter-clockwise, to finish with a split ring at the tip. Why split ring?

TIP : Split Ring creates a distinct point at the tip (rather than base, as in normal ring). And using my whimsical method to finish on a split ring without sewing, (Mathew Takeda's method cannot be used due to the joins) enhances that point.

Elizabeth Heart #2 is from Round 3 designed by Bettina Lauth. I've taken a real liking to these picot flowers! 

In both motifs, worked with 2 shuttles, elements were added or removed without changing the original stitch count. The shape that seemed fine in the doily, does not appeal as an independent motif. Tweaking is needed.

Now why is it that hearts in any bookmark are always identical in shape and design? Can’t we put together different designs and sizes? I’ve done it with sizes in this Patchwork Bookmark, and the Italian Connection bookmark, but the design was the same. Elizabeth Hearts Bookmark could be an idea to work on.