Ice drop Enchained

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A few days back I bought assorted glass pebbles in order to make Jane McLellan’s Elana. Didn’t get to it (yet) but I had an idea when I made my charmed cross pendant. It has a large open space in center – ideal for an ice drop makeover!

Finally got around to experimenting with it this morning.

Ice Drop Enchained 

(a prototype experiment)

My idea was to have long picots all along the chain in front, then link to these picots when tatting the chain at the back. Well, it didn’t quite materialize due to my laziness – didn’t want to leave the warm winter sun to get a picot gauge ;-P

The picots turned out to be too short. 

This is the price I paid for being lazy and not leaving the warm winter sun to get a picot gauge!

But I improvised….by using a lock join with shuttle 2 (also called a ball thread join) leaving enough space to create a mock picot when encasing. Just like we do in Inverted Tatting.

I must say I’m not unhappy with the textured edge this creates.

This is worked in Anchor size 40 and is easily adaptable to any shape and size gem.

But all is not well.

• The stitchcount needs tweaking. I had to substitute the original gem.
• Worked in one pass, but I let the chains make a single point at the tips instead of having an all-round encasement/pocket.
• The picots need to be longer still.
• I ended up keeping the medallion at the back and working the other chain from front. Not that this should be a problem.

The fact remains that it Can be done ! A gem caged between chains within picots ! Even normal picots with regular picot joins. Some dexterity is required to hold the piece when joining, though. I held it sideways, ie., the side faced me, thus making it easy to pull loop through picot and make joins.

I had more ideas for this –

Tat the clovers on both sides – front and back – and join while tatting, inserting a large bead/gem within the space. This would create a nice pendant when chains were inserted at both ends later. For some other day….

Another idea based off Diane’s recent ice drop – tat a twin split ring braid, folding it along the middle to encapsulate the gem. Then add any more rounds as desired.

Also for another day. I do have nice glass pebbles now :-D

happy tatting !!!

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Tatting Techniques : Inverted Tatting - 1

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Warning : This post is Not for the weak-hearted, eye-candy-loving, perfectionists :-)

I am posting this as my process-documentation ….

Inverted Tatting – Inverted Learning !

 

In early 2014, I was so impressed by Judith Connors’ exquisite 3-D flowers & compositions with inverted tatting, that I plunged right in. And plunged in the deep end ! Went straight for 3-D tatting. I would start a piece, reach midways, then wouldn’t know how to proceed because the thread had a mind of it’s own ! Drowning, & obviously frustrated, I discontinued the exercise, promising myself to get more techniques, skills & practice under my belt, before taking it up again.

I had shared these on InTatters at the time, but the pic quality was bad; hence have re-photographed them ….

So first off, here’s what I made then, sometime in March 2014.

 

 

Revisiting  after  One  year !

Inverted Tatting was still not on my horizon this early . But, well, Judith recently posted a picture of beginner level Beaded Damselfly on Craftree & I felt that I could probably tackle that. Now this piece is more 2-D, & it struck me that hey, This is the end I should’ve dipped my toe in first ;-P

So here are my latest ( I did not attempt the Damselfly, simply played around). Again, not good, but I can see my own slight improvement with a few do’s & don’ts for future practice (that are shared below, some of which were instructions by Judith herself) & definitely something I can go back to repeatedly, trying new shapes, etc. till I really improve. 

 

Lessons  learned  so  far :

• Use fine thread, preferably perle cotton. The variegated green, and the brown were in Anchor size 20 (last year), & latest white are in size 40. Unfortunately, no perle cotton.
• Start with simple, equidistant , equi-length picots. It is easier to come back & join as in a mirror-image.
• Lock join should be Tight ! Gives a neater, even, more pleasing look.
• Gradually increase the number of LJs in a single picot. I have made a few with 2 joins in the white paisley.
• Tension is Crucial. Lots of practice required there.
• Do not tug/snug the stitches too much ! My mistake in initial attempts, in order to convert to 3-D, was to really tug at the chain. It just ends up distorting the whole piece !!!
• Do not take extreme close-ups Until you have good pieces to show, lol !

  

Tutorials  referred  to  so  far include (click on each for direct link) :

Mark Myer’s Inverted Tatting  

Karen Cabrera’s Lesson 72 Inverted Tatting 

I will add these & more resources to my Tatting Resources page, as I come across them in future.

What is Your favorite tutorial & tip for Inverted Tatting ?

A  Little  about  Inverted  Tatting

And here is what Judith Connors said about her 3-D projects :

“These samples use an inversion technique, an idea of Elgiva Nicholls and developed by To De Haan-Van Beek in 'New Dimensions in Tatting' (English translation from Dutch). It uses two shuttles and sometimes a tapestry needle. It's like sculpting with threads.”

That’s it for the present. As you can well see, I need tons of practice here ! 

And this technique might well take quite a few posts in future :-)