ETs alit

Pin It now!

 Jan to March we refrained from organising any game of the month in our FB group. Both Ninetta and I needed a long break to attend to other tasks. Quite a bit of work is involved in holding a game which is not always visible. 

Instead we asked members to display their Endrucksian Tatting (ET) by taking a collective pic(s) of all their Endrucks' works done thus far. The collage they sent would be showcased as the group cover for a few days. 

We started with Ninetta's exquisite collage, but the images below are not in sequence. Several members have already gifted away most of their models.

Ninetta Caruso has now tatted samplers from all 44 of Endrucks' original patterns, besides so many derivatives!!! She tacked on the 44 samplers to an accordion book which was part of an exhibition of their association. You can read about it in her blog, and do take a few seconds to see the booklet in this video --- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X-11fHJliaA1WWBigcK51oJMGRv6Xjag/view

And her post - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/04/and-offline-life.html

Lella Loops shared her lovely needle-tatted models most from past games.

Michelle Forclaz sent in her works which include so many patterns she tweaked and played with.

Margaret Davies has been participating and tweaking and designing derivative patterns, too. This is her first collage.

 

Margaret Davies graciously sent in her second collage as well.

Debra F Cox took time out to gather whatever models she had left. She used a couple to decorate the book cover, too.

Muskaan This is my first collage which I detailed here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2024/02/endrucksian-links.html

Muskaan This is my 2nd collage which shows many of the doilies and snowflakes. Multiples are the result of either the design process or of tweaking for presenting the original pattern.

Antonia Lai had displayed some of her lovely ET at Queensland Tatters in Nov 2023. We used her pic as our cover for the 2nd anniversary of our FB group, hence not repeated this year. She has tatted many more, including new derivatives. In fact it is her Life is Bliss butterfly from E32, that we are using in our game this month.

We thank all our lovely members who took the time to send us a pic. This is merely a sliver of a slice of the Endrucksian pie which has grown in the past few years! 

Meanwhile, I have stopped receiving notifications when I leave a comment on other blogs. Kind of crazy why some glitch or other keeps plaguing Blogger. Fortunately, one just has to wait it out.

make a forest

Pin It now!

 Pattern for each of The Six Seasons of India derived from Frau Endrucks' pattern #14 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gxz6Q4Qpz_7RtsEx4EFufsVvBYbH5Sfa/view 

Many thanks to Ninetta for reworking and presenting the E14 pattern which made it so much easier to follow, experiment, and tat up.

Please let us know if any link does not work.

The background is my month-old bath towel made from bamboo! Seemed appropriate, don't you think.

I was looking for a light-weight bath-size towel and hubby hit on this. Can't believe how light, super-absorbent, silky smooth it is and it dries super-fast, too, making it ideal for the rainy season .  

Hope you enjoy tatting the trees and creating a forest.

Related Posts -

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/06/impressions.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/06/autumn-fireworks.html
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/07/six-seasons-of-india.html

six seasons of India

Pin It now!

When asked how many seasons are there, the prompt answer is 4: spring, summer, autumn, winter. But where is the rainy season or monsoons - a major part of the Indian climatic cycle!  

How many seasons do you have in your country?

In India we have 6 seasons. In this peninsular landmass that prides itself on various kinds of landforms, the foliage changes from the coastlines to plains to mountainous terrain. Hence we don't see the vibrant fall colours in the plains. I visualized the tree motif as the majestic Banyan (Indian Banyan, Ficus bengalinensis - the national tree of India) and the equally majestic Chinar (Chinese banyan, Platanus orientalis) for autumn and used the same motif to depict the six seasons for #colourmeEndrucks June game in the Endrucks 1920 Project FB group.

It is very interesting that the names of four seasons are male names. Varsha is a common female name; is it because rains are the source of life and due to the dependency on monsoons for an agricultural lifestyle? And Grishma (for warmth) is a rare female name. Ritu means season and this is also a common girl name.

Following pics show each model and my seasonal impressions through shades and picots. The only changes I made are to the ring which is diagrammed; the rest of the pattern remains unchanged. My notes are scattered throughout in bullets.

Endrucks' pattern #14, reworked and presented by Ninetta Caruso -  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mWiQTu_9oVPYpX_1MsObBRR7n1MJWr80/view

Threads  

• The shades used. All size 40 threads from different brands.
• Ball (browns) and one shuttle (greens) throughout.
• I often used scraps of leftover thread and in some models you will see the messy addition.

Vasant/Spring 

• Tiny picots in sap green to represent new shoots.
• All joining picots are small.

Notice how the front tree has fewer rings - mistake! The one behind is correctly tatted.

Grishma/Summer  The sun's rays slipping in through the foliage!  

• One joining mistake in the chains between 6th and 7th rings. Picots are longer to show growth.
• Number and size of picots to indicate the season, as indicated in the ring diagram in each image. Overall ring count remains same as in pattern. 

Varsha/Monsoon or Rains  Lush dense solid foliage in the monsoons!

• Deliberately allowed the greens to show through the trunks for a more organic feel.
• No symmetry in block tatting, following Endrucks' style, again a deliberate choice for that organic look.  Hardly discernible at a glance.

Sharad/Autumn Many of us who have visited Kashmir have certainly seen the Char Chinar in Srinagar - four trees in the four corners of a small island in Dal lake!! It is such a common place to shoot romantic songs in movies.

• Reduced the size and number of picots here.

Again tatted a second one because the first one had mistakes.

Hemant/Pre-winter in my city is more about haze and air pollution. And a lightening of the greens, many of which start to fall. This is why I chose this shade.

• Used reverse join or sometimes simple transposing of threads to change colours/direction, while keeping the green shuttle active at all times.

Shishir/winter Covered in snow, no picots on the rings! 

• Watch out for the chains between 5th and 6th ring. It had escaped my notice and I kept bungling in the first few motifs. 
• Second point of mistakes initially, was where to join the chains. This is block tatting, but notice how cleverly it has been adapted to create these spreading arms.  

• Started and ended with a knot, leaving short tails. This, too was deliberate since these were meant to be glued on paper in a kind of landscape collage with some painting and beads added. Couldn't get around to that before the end of the month, so now I have a little something else in mind to use these. Most probably turn them into bookmarks for our new game of the month - Mark Me Endrucks!

Future/missed Ideas I had a lot more ideas going in - eg.

• leaves sprouting in a second layer or randomly on the trunk branches;
• onion rings for denser foliage;
• adding beads as a third colour to represent flowers, fruit,...; 
• using different motifs to represent different seasons; and so on. 

Turned out I didn't have the right size beads for size 40 and no time to tinker around. As it is, I kept making silly mistakes while tatting - the reason for 8 motifs (and one discarded at the very outset) instead of six. Thankfully I figured it out and then it was smooth sailing and enjoyable.

Related links -
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/06/impressions.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/06/autumn-fireworks.html

mishmash 2020

Pin It now!

 

The year was such a mishmash, such a dump in many ways and creative individuals took refuge in their arts and crafts.

We had to step out of our comfort zone while staying in the comfort of our home

It brought us closer while keeping us apart

It kept our radiant smiles hidden while our masks became colourful and decorative

It revealed many truths while many were deliberately hidden

It altered the hierarchy of ailments and treatments

Old adages, conventions, and behaviours seemed to fall apart

Oh what a hodgepodge - normal, new normal, ultra new normal?

'It was the best of times It was the worst of times?'

So what will the new year unfold? Or will our mishmash continue ....

Whatever the future holds, humanity is resilient and hope springs eternal!

So let's celebrate each moment, each life, each other 💕

Handmade Cards I

Pin It now!

Happy Holidays !

Season's Greetings 

& 

A Very Happy & Peaceful New Year 2015

saying it with an assortment of my handmade cards

(string art on paper, abstract collage, watercolours)

 

String Art / Embroidery on Paper

  

Watercolours

 

Collage Symbolism / Abstract

New Year Card :

The collage candles, my original artwork, has a symbolic message/wish conveyed through the size of candles, their relative placement, & their colours, as well as the intensity of the flames. If the past was black & the present bleak, the future will be very bright. The past is forgotten, the present is waning away, the future is looking brightly ahead. Or the past & present are/will become shining or treasured memories that will remain alive in us (as reflected by the flames). Shadows have not been added, because the black & grey candles (past & present) themselves act as a shadow to our life ahead.
I've used some sort of glossy paper for the candles & thin glossy magazine paper for flames [recycled]. In order to give it depth/3-dimension, the molten wax has not been glued down completely, & the candles themselves are glued over a thicker layer of paper. The telltale shadowy lines indicate the raised candles.

The string art on paper patterns have been taken from a book, the title of which I do not have. If somebody knows, I would appreciate you sharing the info so that due credit can be given ... These were made back in the late 80's, so the book predates that. It was a hardbound coffee-table kind of book with loads of lovely patterns, kindly lent by a friend.