I. What is it ?!
A Festive Candle ?
A pair of Peacock feathers ?
Lord Krishna’s Bansuri (flute) ?
II. What comes first ?
The cart or the horse
?
The tail or the body ?
The chicken or the egg
?
Sorry, couldn’t resist that last question ;-))
But on a more serious note, when tatting a bookmark, which
side/end would You normally start with ? Body, you answer ?
Well, I have, so far, always started with the main body,
& Then added a tail, tassel, charm, ….
Not this time !!!
I had the Tail Charms ready & needed a Body to go with
it ;-P
I had tatted Jane Eborall’s Shuttle Shaped Motifs that I spoke about here – one complete & the other partial. What should I do
with them was my concern, because the former was a bit large to glue on to my
shuttle. Decided that Both of them would act as charms at the end of bookmark
tail.
Thus began my hunt for a 2-colour pattern . After browsing
through my pinterest board, , I settled on this Spiral Bookmark
I’d wanted to try ever since setting eyes on it.
Spiral Bookmark by Regina ‘Gina’ Brummet adapted from edging #1, page 23 in Tatting Doilies & Edgings, Dover Press, edited by Rita Weiss. (I have the book, but the pattern is now linked in Craftree, here, through keep&share).
Spiral Bookmark by Regina ‘Gina’ Brummet adapted from edging #1, page 23 in Tatting Doilies & Edgings, Dover Press, edited by Rita Weiss. (I have the book, but the pattern is now linked in Craftree, here, through keep&share).
My Notes :
- SLT (shoelace trick) is a must each time the colours are switched.
- I did directional (modern) tatting, hence everything was tatted from the front/right side. I did not need to Reverse Work at any stage.
- It was a bit messy while working up one side, but once the other side started to join up, it all came along nicely.
- Must read/skim through the Entire instructions/pattern carefully before starting the actual process of tatting ! I missed the turning chain part & had to unravel 2 closed rings.
- Needed to increase the stitchcount at both ends. I Googled Images & most of the versions had in fact increased the chain length by one repeat at least.
- Tatted in Anchor Mercer size 20. Aqua Blue (in Sh1) : 4054-0185 . Lemon Yellow (in Sh2) : 4054-0293
- Bookmark measures 10”x 1¼” (without tail). Good for large-sized books such as encyclopedias & coffee table books. Shuttle charms : blue : 2½”x >1” & , yellow (round1) : >1” x ¾”
Initially, I was going to have both charms on a single Lock
Chain. But as I worked, I decided why not have them as Separate chains ? Went
ahead, attaching thread to one charm, tatting a LCh, joining to the bookmark
end, & continuing down to the other motif. Without conscious intention, I now have a
Three-In-One Bookmark where the main body, as well as each shuttle charm acts
as a page separator/marker at the Same time ! Great for when referring back
& forth ! For instance our very own tatting binders – mark the pattern
as well as the technique tutorial ;-)
The reason I was really excited earlier, was this gorgeous
Candle pattern that emerges when the motifs are placed on top, acting as a
flame ! (first picture on the very top) The best part is that both the flames & the candle can
be tatted in one pass .
The shuttle motifs also work well as a peacock feather (mayurpankh) for Lord Krishna’s crown
& flute !
You can see, I thoroughly enjoyed this entire experience, playing around with the pieces.
My sincere thanks to the designers for sharing their
patterns.
Now for the last question :
To give you a couple of clues : It is done with 2 shuttles
& in 2 rounds.
It is not a given pattern, I just went along while learning
the technique & going with the colours in each shuttle. With a little bit of tweaking, these look like Two Intertwined Hearts.
Even if you can't recall the exact technique, I would love to hear what might have gone on in there ... think aloud please :-)
Happy
tatting J
Motif
# 13 / II for 25 Motif Challenge
