leap into a new year

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In a couple of hours earthlings will begin to usher in and celebrate the new year. 
A couple of pics of, perhaps, my most ambitious designing challenge to date ..... the furious flurry of the 25 Snowflake Project. I thank you for patiently following my 7 month long journey, and many have thrilled me with their enthusiastic response through actual tatting and tweaking!

I wish all my beloved readers, friends, and followers a hugely creative year ahead with peace, happiness, and good health.
You have all brightened and enlightened my life :-)))

I have made a couple more versions/variations since this pic was taken and will gradually share all patterns.
Find all snowflake patterns here.
I'm glad many of these are flower flakes or summer flakes -- with record winter spell -- chilliest and longest spell for over a Century !!! 

finito

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#24 & #25 in Land of Laces' 25 Snowflake Project.

Phew, it's done! The last 2, in the nick of time. And yet, I feel, actually I find, there are still so many ideas on my drawing board yet to see the light of day. And a couple midway on my shuttles.
Anyways, plenty of time for all that.

First, season's greetings to all my readers. Almost everywhere I see/read, the weather is playing havoc or is pretty 'un'seasonal. Hope good cheer prevails over and above the weatherman's predictions.

#24 is a throwback idea from 2016. This stacked adaptation is called Double Dotted Snowflake. I had liked how the twin dots appear close together, forming a virtual circle,  under the arches. I need to tat one more to confirm that it works as neatly as when 2 separate motifs are stacked. But more details, along with pattern, later.

And the final, #25, is a deliberately wonky tree which has spunk to be seen as crooked ;-p 

I came across this graphic card with this sketch in one of the blogs a couple of months back (can't find that blog now), and Loved the freeform sketch with character!

It was easy to convert to tatting, but beading took me a lot of time.

UPDATE : Pattern for this tree motif is posted in pdf here.

Now I need to take a group photo of all 25(+) models for this project. Wonder how I'll fit them all in one frame ... i have an idea, but like so many, execution belies imagination ;-D

monkey business

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Snowflake #23 in Land of Laces’ 25 Snowflake Project

Why did I title this post ‘monkey business’? I’ll tell you in a bit. Let me start from the beginning.

It was an amazing start in a sense. After a few beaded trials that needed more figuring out, I finally decided what I would do. But no lessons learnt, sigh. It ended up as a square. I think it looks superb as an ornament – pendant, earring, brooch?

While it holds well, if one wants to wear it, I think some stiffening will be needed otherwise the swinging beads will fold down with gravity. 

I wish I could capture the beautiful sheen & shine.

For the snowflake project though, I started a new one without beads. Folded rings are not often seen in snowflake patterns and I repeated the top ring inside the negative space as well. Lots of folded rings (need to practice, so don’t look too closely) and I like the overall design! 

Anita Barry spoiled it for me!!! I was pretty happy with my latest star but she saw a monkey face in it! She’s such a Goose. Now all I can see is a Monkey, too, or perhaps even a Lion or Tiger face. She even suggested a name like Monkey Mania and is determined to call her's 'monkey face'! Grrrr, I’m too Chicken to use it because then all everybody will see is that darned monkey!

I still know which name will stick, though ;-P
And do you see a Butterfly? I saw it while tatting and is worth pursuing.

While I have finalised the count, this star model can be considered a prototype since there is a bit of tweaking going on. So if you have suggestions, please do share. I might incorporate them.

It is too cold for me to work at my desktop for long, hence pattern will have to wait. I also want to make this a 6-armed snowflake. Then all 3 patterns can be uploaded in one go.

Meanwhile I have worked the first trial of #24. Should be able to work and share in a couple of days. 

UPDATE: 2 more variations in 6 points - Folded Fun Snowflake and Stupa, shared here.