a try at design

While I'm waiting for my turtle supplies to arrive for my second turtle class I am trying my hand at designing.  I haven't designed anything of my own since I swapped my needles for shuttles (and what I did design in the past was rather mediocre)

I colleague at work is am amateur photographer and he was showing me his work and we got talking about themes.  He noted an interest is steam punk and neo-vicorian (if you don't know what that is, think of the movie "Wild Wild West") and I showed him some of the tatting I did that would suit that theme.

He really liked the Portait necklace and I showed him pictures of other accessories.  He was really interested in tatted masks so I offered to make one for a photo shoot.

I was going to make one from an available pattern but then I decided I wanted to design my own for this project.

This is what I have managed so far.  There is going to be an extra section added above the central motif and I am going to have to adjust the stitch count on the small rings above the right eye so the rings join at the same height as the adjacent chain.

At the moment it is made in size 20 cotton but i'm not sure if it might look better in size 10.  I will finish it how it is and make another couple with different stitch counts and a different thread size to see which I prefer best.