i'm back

Well I have been very naughty and not done any tatting for well over a month!!

I do, however, have a very good excuse.  I am just back from getting Married in Hawaii!!

I did have a pattern looked out, my thread selected, hook free shuttles bought and a reel of dental floss looked out but I didn't touch it the whole time I was away, not even on the flights!!  I did have the time of my life though

The pictures are too small to clearly but you can see the trim on my dress that I made from tatted lace and mother of pearl coin beads.

This was the view from the honeymoon cottage we were staying in at the Turtle Bay resort:

And this is why it is called Turtle Bay:

And here I am after sitting under the waterfalls, sporting my little sassy turtle I made in Teri Dussenbury's class.

Now i'm back and settling back into my routine I should get some tatting done though it is now cool enough to start training the dogs for their first race at the end of October.  Lots to do and so little time to do it all in!!

Till next time,

Cat. x

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.

turtles

I've been rather busy lately and with arrangements for going to Hawaii next month to get married and everything that entails.

I fair chunk of my free time over the last month has been taken up doing Teri Dusenbury's one-on-one class for making her sassy turtle.

I was given a list of supplies which I ordered basically as soon as I got the list but I was so impatient for the supplies to arrive that I started pracicing with what I had available and made my first turtle just before the real supplies showed up.

The pattern uses C-Lon micro cord which is hard to get in the UK and much thinner that what i'm used to.  Also being nylon it is different to work with in cotton. Once I got the hang of it, I loved it but you have to be very careful not to get ANY twisting in it or you can't close rings.

Anyway, to practice I used size 10 lizbeth cotton, size 9/o seed beads and 4mm beads and here is what my practice turtles looked like:

After my supplies arrived I had to start from scatch again to learn how to work with the C-LON thread. It was rather frustrating but after a fair bit of practice and being very systematic and constant with getting rid of twists I became quite good with working with it.

Here is a photo of my first real turtle.  Him and his buddies are coming with me to Hawaii (what better place for a sea turtle??)

Most people who know of Teri, know how protective she is of her designs but she gave me permission to share these photos and asked me to pass on her message that if anyone would like to learn how to make these lovely turtles themselves, to message her on facebook.

The classes are 1-on-1 and you must agree to buy the supplies and not share or modify the pattern and not to sell the finished pieces (you can give them away if you like).  If you join the class she adds you to her facebook page and gives you access to her tuorital videos which are very helpful support to the pattern.

So if you are interested, get in touch with her and have some turtle fun! :-D

'Till next time...

Cat. x

memory wire

I've been playing around with beads for the last week, making bracets for our up coming trip to Hawaii and in the spirit of Hawaii I decided to use really cute Plumeria clay beads to really set the mood.

In my last post I showed a couple of bracelets I made using elastic however I felt they were lacking something - more flowers!  So I decided to make a bigger bracelet with 3 rounds of pearls with a flower on each round.

To make the bracelet simple I decided to try using memory wire.  The stuff is great! all you need is wire snips and a pair of pliers and you can make lovely bracelets in less than 5 mintues.  Here is a couple of pictures of my first attempt.  (I have subsequenty made a second one with pink flowers for my mum but  forgot to take some pictures!)

I'm also quite excited about another new craft i'm going to be learning.  Teri Dusenbury is going to be teaching me how to make her lovely turtles.  I'm hoping to have completed at least my first turtle before I go to "TURTLE BAY" in Hawaii.  Wont that be cool!  Its going to be a one-on-one class and i've ordered all my supplies.  Now I just have to wait a week or two for the items from the US to arrive then we can get started. :-D

Until next time..

Cat x

The Christening

OK, so i've been very slack in updating the blog.  I've been at my new job now for a month and everything is starting to settle down to there are a LOT of things to do in preparation for our special trip to Hawai'i in September.

Eilidh was Christened in May and so was such a good baby, she slept through the whole thing and didn't even wake up when the water was poured on her head!

Here is a cute photo of her in her bonnet.  It was still too big for her but she was soo cute and lots of people complimented the bonnet so I was a happy bunny.

I have also dipped my toes into beaded jewellery with these simple bracelets for our trip to Hawai'i.  I've just bought some more beads and some memory wire to try and make something bigger after realising wearing two singles at the same time looked better than single bracelets.  More on that later.

Until next time...

Cat. x

bitten off more than I can chew?

I haven't posted for a while becuase life has been a bit hectic of late.

I handed in my notice at my current job as I was offered a new job with better pay and better prospects.  I'm going to miss everyone (with maybe a couple of exceptions) and so I stupidly decided to make some jewellery for the girls.  That is 7 bracelets in 3 weeks which may not sound like a lot but when you work full time and have other time commitments it is very hard to squeeze it all in.

This is my last week at work so I now have 3 days to finish the tatting so I can bring the work in on my last day for fitting the findings.

I have mostly been making bracelets like the one in my last post with everyone's favourite colour but I did make a celtic bracelet for a more mature lady and I made a chocker for another girl.

I will have to take a picture of my work when it is finished and post it to let you see.

It was also my niece's chistening on Sunday and everyone was admiring her bonnet.  It was still slightly too big for her but it looked lovely.  She also had a knitted blanked from her other God Mother and a knitted cardigain from her Grandma so she was fully kitted out in hand made stuff.

It was also an exciting weekend becuase I bought a new car (well, new for me).  Since I have a new job with more money I decided it was the best time to splash out as my increase in wage will cover the payments for it so i'm not going to miss the money.  Its a bit flash but you only live once..

a little something for me

All my tatting seems to be done with someone else in mind.  I have made jewellery for birthday presents and a bridal set for a wedding (including the bridesmaids) hearts for valentines day, bits and bobs for exchanges and now a baby bonnet.  This may not sound like a lot but I have only been tatting for a year so really I have been quite busy.

With this in mind I thought it was about time I made something just for me.  I bought Judith Connors contemprary tatting book becuase I loved the image on the front cover so I decided to make a bracelet out of the choker design on the front.  Here is the finished piece:

I modified it ever so slightly so that I could attach magnet clasps as both ends, this way I didn't have to worry about getting the exact right length around my wrist, I could just adjust the length of the chain as needed.

Making something for me was not the only first with this project. it was also the first time I have covered rings, the first time I have done split rings with shuttles and the first time I have used glue instead of hiding the ends using the magic thread trick.

I played about with a different ideas for joining elements together and in the end I did it as follow:

• I covered the first ring and made a small picot using a 5mm jump ring 4ds before the ring was completely covered.

•  the first ring was completed covered I took the second ring and holding it below the first ring and continued with the same thread to cover the second ring.  After the first 4ds I jointed it to the picot of the first ring and then continued round till it was covered.  

• Now the starting tail on the first ring and the finishing tail on the second ring are right next to each other so I simply tied them together using a square stitch.  making sure the knot was on the back of the rings I used a tiny blob of super glue over the knot and then cut the tails once it dried.

• I then tatted the outer motif of the centre design, making the picots that were to be attached to the rings as small as possible.

• Next I used invisible thread and a fine beading needle and starting at the point the two rings touch I ran the thread under the stitches of the ring, only bringing it out at the point where I wanted the outer motif to be attached.  Again I tied the ends of the thread at the back of the rings and used a tiny dob of glue to fix it in place.

• I tatted the band section till it was long enough to come round the back of my wrist.  (For me this was 14 rings but I have quite small arms).

• I inserted the band section through the double rings and positioned it so the bead between the centre rings of the band was directly over the middle of the covered rings. 
  I then took another length of invisible thread and from the back of the band ran the thread though the centre bead.  I then fed each tail though each adjacent plastic ring and tied the tails at the back of the rings and glue them in place.

The book didn’t tell me to fasten the band to the plastic rings but this keeps the band in the correct place so the overall visual effect of the piece is symmetrical and as shown in the illustration.  

I wore it to work yesterday and I got several admirers.  So much so that ive started makeing a second one, this time all black.  this one I might make into a choker and wear it on Saturday as we have a birthday dinner to go to.

Until next time...

Cat.x