Monday, 6 March 2017

cute flower motifs

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Tatting Decorations
Daniela Mendola

I could just do the one, though Daniela has shared them in many sizes ! I loved the simple lines and the elegant shape of the petals. She has so many patterns on her blog - all very elegant and pleasant. And she dabbles in many different crafts, uploading video tutorials or pictorials in embroidery, crochet, and tatting. This is my first, but definitely not my last ! 


What also attracted me was the bare thread line overlapping the round 1 petals. She demonstrates it in her video, but it also reminded me of Martha Ess' Decorative Join.
Essentially, both are the same. The only difference is that Martha pulls up the chain loop from the front, thus getting visible 4 threads while Daniela pulls up the chain loop from the back, thus distributing 2 threads in front & 2 at back. In some ways it's like the former is in a flat plane while the latter is in a perpendicular plane. I really like the effect, even though this image shows me that I didn't execute them to perfection !!!

Tatted in size 20, this one measures 1.5" across

many thanks, Daniela ! 
happy tatting J



Saturday, 4 March 2017

Fill in the rings

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Turkish tatting and filled-in rings 

BD Angel 2017
Wally Sosa

Wally has been sharing a birthday motif annually for the last 17 years ! This time she chose an angel with Turkish Tatting or Oya Makuk (lace shuttle). She has shared an excellent stepwise pictorial, as well as Karen’s video for this technique. Both made it easy to follow along.  

I used various shapes of sequins to create a wing-like effect, along with a beaded star in the center. 
So that I remember in future : thread the left wing sequin, red star, round sequin and bead on the shuttle (core thread). Then bring the thread back through the 3 sequins, thus securing the bead over the 3 layers. Snug into place. Then load the right wing. This can be done over a picot, if desired.
I also increased the stitches in the head ring so that it showed up nicely over the ‘wings’. 
I had to decrease the skirt length because it was becoming too wide (I need to practice controlling my hand loom). Instead of 15 weaves, I only did 10 or 11. The increased width also called for a longer chain below.
The above pic shows the angel from behind. I like this woven edge too - feels 'sunken'.

It was tremendous fun learning a new technique on such a cute, quick pattern. One suggestion in the OTC was to add beads on the long picots ! Wouldn't that be awesome. 

Many thanks to Wally for sharing her immense creativity.

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  My Experiments with Solid or Filled-In Rings

It was my first attempt at Oya Makuk above, but many months back I did experiment with filling in rings. You might remember that tiny 3D spiderwort doodle.

The images below are all prototypes. I haven't been able to work on them since.

In this first experiment, graduated picots are made on a normal/true ring. Then on the way back, keep joining to each picot. Close ring. The effect closely resembles oya, but can be done within a true ring. 
Requires tremendous practice to get it looking nice ; size of ring is a limiting factor ; joining is a bit fiddly.
On the plus side, no need for any other thread or shuttle ; no extra thread ends to hide ; can make spot decisions.


Could I fill the entire ring ?
The graduated picots were made along the edge as before, but at the tip I added a twisted picot for spiked effect, and went back from above, joining to each picot and adding a few extra stitches to get the larger arch. One can use a folded ring for this. When Inverted tatting fails us, this faux inverted tatting can come to the rescue !
I found this leaf ring much easier to close than the petals, and could make it larger, too. 
Again, requires a lot of practice. And one must be careful while closing the ring.


Now this is something I have never come across !
It is a ring made and filled up Entirely with chains !!!
Start the chain (I used 2 colours to differentiate between core and chain/stitch thread). At regular intervals, insert a paperclip to hold an inward picot space. I have 3 such picots as evident from the clips.
Continue with a long chain ; fold at desired point, turning back and joining to inner picot, fold and move to right, and so on. It is one continuous chain, being joined back to picots along it's inner lengths. 
Pretty fiddly, of course, with all those dangling clips. But fun to experiment ! And do-able too. And no limit to size of ring !!!

In balance, of course, one has to admit that Oya makuk is the way to go. Turkish tatting is a much simpler, quicker, neater way to fill in a ring of any size or shape ! And so much easier to add beads in the filling picots !!!

Hope you enjoyed my little whimsical meanderings ....

happy tatting always :-)

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Tuesday, 28 February 2017

sakuras and shuttles

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what does one do when one is laid up in bed, without necessarily lying down ?
Tat, of course !!!
And this lovely pattern, shared on the same day, caught my eye. I've been meaning to tat one of her designs for a while now.

Cherry Blossom Doily 1 Variation
Hye-oon Lee
(of lovelytatting.com)

I liked two aspects - the 16 central outward-facing rings, and the thrown rings on the last round. Perfect!
After a bit of dallying over choice of colours, I settled on traditional pink flowers and brown bark of tree.

Tatted in size 40 threads, it measures 4½ inches across.
Anchor Mercer Art. 4054 : pink - 052 ; brown 00352. I needed less than 2 full bobbins of pink and 1 full bobbin of brown.
Techniques : 2 shuttles , thrown rings, mock ring with thrown rings.

I cut and joined for each round.
Started the last round with brown thrown ring instead of the sakuras.
Click here for the free pattern, and also to view more of her exquisite tatting.
I thoroughly enjoyed tatting this !


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Homemade Shuttles

And on a totally different note, now that I can do beads, who knows when I might need a large shuttle to load beads ?! Couldn’t find them on Amazon, so Pinterest to my rescue !

Last year, Tamara had requested testers for her prototype cardboard shuttles on Craftree and this is what I rustled up within a few minutes, using doubled-up cardstock. Crudely made, but worked well enough to give her feedback and suggestions. I was too ashamed to post, coz Eliz had soon made a perfect set!

This time I cut out the sides from an empty L’Oreal shampoo bottle - plastic. And for the central post I used an adaptation of Tamara’s method, with cardstock – merely folding 2 rectangles at both ends and gluing them all. Sandpapered the sides a bit. Still crude, but feels good to know that it is do-able. Needs to be adorned and tested; all that for later. For now, it seems to be holding up fine.
I've placed a Pony shuttle beside it to compare size.

Hey, it just occurred to me that this being the last day of the month would’ve qualified for the pinterest challenge ;-D


 Many thanks to all the designers for sharing their skills ! 

happy tatting everyone !
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