More Metal and Lace

I am really loving this technique! I found some other items to cover with double knots! Here is a metal disk I made into a slide. Done in DMC metallic thread (the spool kind) a fresh water pearl and tiny silver beads.



In the previous post I showed you the tiny heart that I made into an earring. In the same package came two more hearts medium and large. Here is what I did with the large one, another slide, made with the metallic and tiny beads. I think I may add some crystals or even a pearl for the next one. Sometimes you have to work through these to get the covering right and the balance of the rings before you can add extra. Not bad for a first try especially with the metallic which I love but can be quite troublesome when working with it.





I've seen that Plaid has some other metal pieces that may work with this technique so I'm off to tat for the day!

Metal and Lace

Whether it is a jump ring or a fancy wire heart like this one, you can make wonderful earrings using a technique that goes back to wrapping thread on rings to make shade pulls from the 20's. I had been working with regular jump rings and metallic thread with much success. I found these little heart wires (completely solid all the way around! : ) and thought it would make a very nice earring set. These hearts come in three sizes, this being the smallest. I've been in search of other shapes as well and with all the chains and links out there for jewelry making these days you are bound to find treasures. Thanks to Krystle and Jon (25 motif) for their inspiration in modernizing an old technique!

Working on new things....

No, there are no pics again. I know I so bad at this part but I was cruising around the blogs today and found Yarnplayer (Marilee) had posted a new pattern for earrings, so this morning I like them so much I sat down and made a pair looking at the picture online. All I can say is beautiful. If you visit her blog they are the "Key earrings".
Yesterday I went by our new Joann super store and was looking for some very fine thread for a pair of celtic knot earrings I want to do but I am not happy with the size they keep coming out. I tried 30 and 80 but still a bit too big. So while at Joann's I happened upon heavy duty Gutermann thread. It has a nice finish to it and slides very easily. I was a bit skeptical because I've tried using thread like this before and have not been happy with the results. I got it home and wondered if it would be too small. But I tatted it up and the only draw back was that I chose black but otherwise they came out the right size! I think they are probably 100 weight. They are sort of stiff so I need to see what the iron will do to the thread. I hope it won't melt it! I'll have to put a cloth between and hope and pray!

Later that day went with my Dad to the Richmond Metro Zoo. Now you have to understand it is not a zoo like the one in DC or any other big city. But it happens to be right down the road (like 5 mins) from where I live and I have never been there. It is a privately owned zoo so there is an entrance fee of 10.75 plus food for the animals. Well, not having been there before and not knowing what I was about to see I thought hmmm $10.75??? All I can say is wow I would have paid more! This zoo and the people who own it are something else!
They have every kind of animal you can imagine except for an elephant. They have white tigers! Orangutans (he was beautiful) Galapagos turtles (you have no idea how big they are until you see them in person) penguins (too funny!), many more and too much to list here but the most wonderful thing, I got to feed and pet a giraffe. He was so majestic. Very clean and, he/she not sure which, had manners not to slime me with its tongue while eating the entire cup of food I had! BTW they have extremely long tongues and they are strong. It seemed to enjoy being pet and was so soft. I never thought in my life I would get to pet one. I had seen a documentary online about a giraffe being set free into the wild, starring the lady from Absolutely Fabulous (English comedy) and ever since I have been in love with giraffes. They are the most wonderful animals. They have (I think) 5 of them. But one was a baby so he was not in with the rest. Not tall enough yet to reach the area where you can feed them but it was very friendly when you went by its fence. Well all I can say is WOW you just had to be there! I could just sit out there with them all day !

HDT Earrings

I know can you believe it? I finally posted some thing on this blog! Actually I have been working on quite a few things but I never get the time to take pictures. Lately I have been experimenting with Procion dyes. Wonderful product! The Ben Franklin is the only store here that sells it and they have decided to no longer carry it. What a bummer! I need a couple of other colors (like black) so if anyone knows how to get a hold of some, please let me know. I've created quite a few colorways that have turned out well and I am experimenting constantly. Now I know why people are hooked. The earrings above are one of the colorways. This one goes from a dark green to light green to light blue to dark blue.
I've also been working on some jewelry using wire frames and jump rings, covering them with the double stitch and rings. Need to take photos of these but they are done in silver metallic so I need to figure out how to get the detail and not the shine from the thread so more to come soon!

Shuttle Collection

Sorry these are not in order as you read them but I could not get Blogger to take more than one picture at a time. You might want to start at the beginning(at the bottom) or at the top which ever you prefer.
Finally the last one or the first one depending on how you choose to read this blog! (LOL)
These shuttles are very unique. They are all hand made by unknown artist (everyday people). Some are treenware. This type of wood was used to make quite a few souvenir sewing tools. These however are very rugged and were probably made by the tatter or their husband. In the centers you can see carving marks. These have a really great patina to them as well.
The shuttle on the top left is made of some kind of horn. It has square nails that hold it together and the points don't touch. It is more like a knotting shuttle. I think this one is extremely old. Unfortunately some insects got to it and began eating the center through. This was before I owned it. It has been cleaned of its mites and is now doing much better. The very large shuttle on the bottom is interesting as well. It is held together by three nails (very old nails) and its center is a hand carved post but when they put it together they didn't quite place the post in the very center which made the shuttle wobble. They added a third nail to fix it so when you look in you see the post and this nail. I don't know why but everytime I look at it I think yep that would have happened to me to if I made one. I think this shuttle must have been loved because you can feel where the person held it and you can see the worn places. It's really something else.

Shuttle Collection

Ok we are winding down here I promise!

The next group are sterling shuttles. These are from the late 1800's but mostly 1900's. One to note is the shuttle on the left (top row). This one is a bob-o-link shuttle from 1915. I point this one out because believe it or not the top and bottom separate into two pieces. This was something new at the time. It was advertised as an easy winding bobbin shuttle.

Shuttle Collection

The next group of shuttles were made in England in the 1800's. English shuttles are very narrow. The red one is dyed with a red stain. Sometimes you can find green but these are extremely rare. The shuttle next to it is horn that has been ground down and then formed back into a shape of a shuttle. It was then inlaid with mother of pearl flowers. This one I think is my most favorite, because one it is so beautiful but more importantly two it was given to me by my wonderful man (my luv)! He surprised me with it last Christmas. What a surprise huh? The other two shuttles are very narrow, one bone the other is horn.

Shuttle Collection

Here are a collection bone and ivory shuttles. These are various ages. Many of these have a great patina to them. I am not doing them justice with my descriptions here as I am too lazy to get out the shuttle books and wanted to post them as soon as I could. The large one at the top, center is ivory and came in a set with an ivory silk winder, 2 thread barrels a couple of winders. It has a wonderful feel to it and is a large shuttle.

Shuttle Collection

Next are some very interesting shuttles. The top shuttle is also from Canton China but it is a smaller version with not very much carving. I believe this one to be from the 1700's as well.

The bone shuttle in the center is also from China but the center is wide enough for it to be wound with a decent amount of thread. This probably younger than 1700's for this reason. I found this one when I was out at an antique show and it was in with some other bone items (that is what they sold) and let's just say they didn't know what they had. Yippeeeee for me!
The bottom shuttle was made around 1868. It has a brass bobbin in the center and originally had a bone and brass crank winder that attached to the center hole to crank the thread onto the bobbin. You can see a full version in Heidi Nakayama's book. Wish I had the crank! I found this shuttle at an antique show and I when I saw it I thought " What a strange shuttle. How do you get the thread on it maybe slide out the bobbin?" I brought it home and searched through my shuttle books and I am surprised they didn't hear the exclamations of joy on the other side of the world when I saw the picture in Heidi's book.

Shuttle Collection

I've been collecting shuttles for about as long as I have tatted. My Dad was testing his new camera and what an opportunity to get him to photograph them! Here are a few of my favorites. Quite a few of these are very old.
Here is a shot of three knotting shuttles. These are quite large. The two mother of pearl shuttles are dated to about the late 1700's to early 1800's.

The shuttle in the middle was made in 1700's in Canton China for a ladies work box. These shuttles are notorious for not having much room for thread. Some say this was because they didn't actual know the purpose of the shuttle but rather focused on the intricate carving.

Magic Thread

I need to vent for a moment.
Does anybody else have trouble with using the magic thread method for hiding threads? I DO!
Maybe I am tatting too tight? I can get the threads in and pulled through but when it comes to pulling the thread I want to hide back through it gets stuck EVERY TIME!
Should I end my last stitch with the second half of the double stitch? Does this help?
Thank goodness for beads. I seem to be placing them in places where I can run the threads through but I really want to do this right.
Maybe I need to just sit down and practice. (Yeah right, I can barely sit down enough to tat. hehe)
I need help. Yes some would say I need that kind of help too but I can only handle one crisis at a time.
If anyone has a suggestion please let me know. I'll check back in a bit, but for now I will go back to throwing shuttles, screaming and pulling my hair out! (Not really but it sure makes a funny visual).

Comments

To those of you who have left me comments, thank you. Someone let me know that I had not responded to them and I feel very sad about this. I think some of the comments are getting forwarded to my spam folder. Hopefully I have corrected this problem. I didn't realize this was happening because the folder would grow to 1,000 and I would delete without looking. It makes me angry because one, I have missed your email and two now you think I am ignoring you and all because we have idiots out there sending trash when we could be communicating.
In my last post I forgot to mention that Beth Zipay also inspired me to make the watch after I saw one of her bracelets.
Ok I am off to get some other items ready for the camera!

The Watch

I found a pattern in the "Tatter's Workbook" in the form of a triangle. I added another side to make it a square. I added beads to the design while tatting it and presto a watch band. The thread is HDT from Yarnplayer called Tourmaline. I love her threads! I've been playing around with this to make sure that the threads will hold up with the weight of the watch head. It tends to roll around a bit so I think I will weigh it down with a few trinket hearts on the clasp.

I've been working on a few pieces but as you can see from previous post I can't get the pic posted. Here is a sample of an earring that I am working on for a friend. I found this pattern in one of my antique books. Originally it was the center of a snowflake but it's cute without the rest. I've done a set where I did eight points and it comes out a little larger with more stability.