New Directions, new ideas...

On a trip to Spotlight I found these wonderful clear key tags designed, I think to put photos in. Since anything that can fit a photo can almost certainly fit a small tatted motif I instantly bought them and brought them home to experiment!

The results were actually really pleasing. This is the perfect vehicle to display my slightly bigger motifs in a way anyone can enjoy them without the pieces getting soiled. The only difficulty I have is finding a cutter or punch that will accommodation the 5cm diameter disc I need to give the motifs adequate backing. This 4cm cutter does for the minute but I think it would look so much better if it actually fit the recess. What do you think? A key tag with a unique piece of hand tatted lace preserved for your continued enjoyment with no fear of soiling or damage to fibres? Would you buy such an item? I hope so :)

  

Silky Threads and Tatted Lace

Sounds alluring, doesn't it? Actually it's pretty pragmatic. I bought these absolutely gorgeous silk thread from a lovely shop on etsy - https://www.etsy.com/shop/Thecraftmagpie

Aren't they absolutely the most wonderful autumn tones you've ever seen??

Anyway, I'd always meant to try tatting with them since really lovely intense colours are ridiculously hard to find especially at the fineness I tend to want to use. These were a lot finer than what I usually tried but what the heck! I'd give it a shot!!

There is no way I am putting in any of the poor deformed attempt I tried before I got the combination of tension and looseness right. I snapped so many rings of tatting trying to draw the thread through that for months I didn't even look at the threads! But recently I had another go, having calmed down enough to look at it logically and know that while each knot needed to be complete it didn't need to have a death grip on the supporting thread because it simply wouldn't support the force needed to pull the thread through. And I'm pleased to say I succeeded!

Isn't it sweet?? The glass it's between is about 3cms square and the motif would fit comfortably on the pad of your thumb! Not to say it wasn't tricky to do. I had a couple of heart stopping moments when I broke the thread but fortunately I was able to rectify it fairly easily. But now I've had a success I might try this again. the possibilities, oh the possibilities!!

:)

Sometimes It Just Doesn't Seem Fair....

Just as I seem to finally be able to sell some of my pretty things to a few local gift stores, Hubbie gets his transfer papers! Which is not a bad thing, it just complicates things a bit.

Carnamah will be an entirely new experience for all of us since Jordan probably wont be moving with us, he'll be moving to Perth instead to further his education. And we've never been posted so far from home before.

And it's going to be hot. Flat. Inland. Wheat country.

Ggggreattt...

But on the upside I've been able to sell 13 of my resin and glass pendants to a specialty gift shop in Walpole called Arcadia Blue with the help of a lovely lady who was not only helpful but sooo encouraging! I also sold 8 to a beautiful gift store in Denmark called Karissma Gallery and Gifts. And I've recieved an email from another shop in Denmark, All About Me, where I left a sample piece and they'd like me to come back on Friday and maybe buy 6 off me. I'm actually starting to get anxious that I'm going to run out of stock!

So I've ordered more frames, glass and chain and I'm going to have to make myself get organised and pour more resin pendants before I run out! 

Oh, it's so nice to be doing something I love and being able to make a little money as well :)

Here it comes...2012

Wow, I haven't posted in ages. I find it  hard to use this as a journal, especially when I can't think of anything to say. But!
I finally caved and took some of my pendants down to the only specialty gift store we have here and asked if she could sell them for me. She thought they were beautiful (which was nice) and said she's never seen anything like the tatting motifs in resin before (goody!). After fluffing around when she asked me how much I'd sell them for (what? you mean I should know that? Oh, er...) we settled on $9 each. She took 10 and before the day had finished she rang to say she'd already sold one! So that was very encouraging! Certainly more so than etsy where I haven't managed to shift a thing!

I got some different frames too. These are a lot easier to handle compared with the resin. Just glass slides in a frame with a piece of tatting trapped between. See how we go for the rest of the year. The lady suggested knitting some mitts and headbands and she'd have a look because they go quick during winter and she doesn't really like the cheapee chinese mass-produced ones.
This year could be an interesting one with lots of curly decisions popping up here and there. Youngest son is getting ready to embark on not one but two massive adventures. Moving to Perth and living almost independently as well as attending uni to further his education. For any other 17 almost 18 year old boy this would be daunting enough but with his Aspergers it throws one more variable into a mix already fraught with possible OMG moments! He's got the support of a lot of really good professionals and we're hoping to hear more back soon since the course he wants to enter begins Feb 21st.
Oh dear. Where's the brown paper bag. I think I'm starting to hyperventilate again!!!
Also Hubbie's two years is up here so he's starting to have to think about where we're likely to choose to be transfered to next. Not looking forward to that since anywhere we choose is bound to be a long way from here, from my parents and I'll probably have to find another job. I hate that!
But none of this has happened yet. 2012 is starting to look like another one of those pivitol years...
...I'm not sure I like that.
Ah well. There's always knitting :)

New Stuff in Shop

I've just put up some new stock on my Etsy shop. I've heaps more pendants to put up but this'll do for the moment. I've just resined up a heap more pendants so hopefully they'll be as pretty. I hope I get better at this. I always make such a mess! 

Wish me luck.

Still Slogging On...

...With the Vintage Jumper of course! I've now finished the back...

and am almost finished with the sleeves! Yahhh!!!

This is going much quicker than I feared it would but I'm still sceptical that I'm not going to hit problems when it comes to seaming everything up. And I'm really not liking the cream colour. I think I might have to dye it something else when it's all sewn up...outside somewhere...so I don't get dye on our rental house!

Also I finally got my parcel from Annie Howe on Etsy! Not Annie's fault, I might add, that it took so long. I stupidly forgot to change the address from my old one to the new one and so it had to first go to the wrong town before being diverted back to the right town! But now I have more goodies to play with!

I've already played with the Art Gel, a pendant tray, a tatted motif and a glass disc and it's looking pretty good so far. I just have to be patient and leave the whole thing to dry properly, then I wont have gel all over the face of the pendant! See, here's one I prepared earlier!

So, there you have it! Now, I better get off, pretend to do some house work and see if I can't finish these sleeves tonight...or at least before 12.30am :)

Happy Knitting :)

Twinkle, twinkle, Little star...

..well, they do look kind of like that. I've finally got a group of pendant trays with a tatted motif embeded in resin all finished. Not 100% satisfied with it myself yet but I'm getting better!

The first group I did I didn't warm the resin first and there are tiny bubbles trapped in the resin not to mention I didn't coat the motifs in PVA glue to keep there colour from becoming washed out when the resin absorbed into it. And some of the background colours weren't the best choice for displaying the motifs either.

These ones are an excellent example of what not to do!

While this one, while beautifully clear...

...still has bubbles trapped in it. But at least I'm getting better at mixing the resin!

Now all I need to do is wait till I get the chains I've ordered off www.etsy.com (LOVE Etsy! I've gotten most of my supplies from there and have had excellent service so far!) and some more pendant trays. And then tat some more motifs, without getting bored doing the same ones over and over and over...

I have a relatively short attention span sometimes :)

Keep Happy!

Now I'm Back Home...

Well, after a lovely nine days with my darling Daughter I can start putting into place some new ideas I had about what I might want to try and sell in my etsy shop, when I finally get myself organised enough to stock it. My little tatted motifs are so sweet I thought it would be nice if I could present them in a way where they wont get dirty or torn off, you know, some way to display them in all their delicate beauty.

I've never used resin before so I've been tinkering. My first attempt was pretty ordinary because I wouldn't wait until I had a few tools I needed (like cups to stir the stuff in!) and the only moulds I could access where silicone muffin trays. Although they look like the bottom is flat they have just a trace of texturing which makes the bottom of the resin kind of frosted. Not the best for looking at a piece of lace :(

So I was more careful next time. I put a layer of resin in the bottom of the moulds and when it was tacky I placed the motifs on it and poured another layer of resin on top.

Then I waited.

After a day and a half I was pretty sure they were dry so I popped them out and gave them another day to dry out a little more. They looked pretty good although I was annoyed that one of them had managed to entrap a gnat so now I have a wonderful lace motif accentuated by a small winged speck!

I sanded them underwater with wet & dry sandpaper (grad 600 & 1200), dried them and dug out my jewellery making supplies and managed to find some bails I bought ages ago for glass bead pendants. Bored a hole in 5 of them and hey presto! I had 5 individual and totally unique resin pendants!

  Aren't they pretty? Don't bother looking for the gnat because it isn't in this group. I'm very pleased with them and will continue experimenting. The tatted motifs of the next lot will be PVA brushed and dried before they go anywhere near the moulds. 

This is fun :)

Stay Happy!

Buttons, buttons everywhere!

I've been enjoying returning to cross stitch for a while and I got these self covering buttons with a cross stitch magazine I bought. Then I started thinking of the things I could put on them and I suddenly remembered the motifs I can make with tatting. A few pieces of calico, different colours of crochet cotton and a few shuttles and Viola! I have some of the cutest, most individual buttons you'll ever see !

Aren't they sweet? I wish I had heaps more but as you can see I've covered all the ones I have. Next time I'm in town I'm going to see if I can get more and some different sizes too. These are kind of big. With finer cotton I could cover quite small ones. So pretty, so unique! Sighhhh. I could just sit and look at them all day.
Anything that makes you smile should be encouraged, right?
Have fun :)

Dusting off the shuttles!

I got a sudden urge to dust off the tatting shuttles and do a little tatting, especially since while knitting a pair of mits I poked one of the double pointed needles (2.75mm) through my left forefinger leaving it a little tender to knit with. But tatting has a whole different movement. I'm pretty happy with my latest work :)

The pattern is from an old pattern book I have of tatted edgings and such put out by Paragon. Mostly complex doilies with too many frills and bits for me but this was a lovely simple styled corner and really quite surprisingly simple and fast! I finished all four corners in about 3 days and that was by no means constant work either!

This is what they'll look like when I finially put them on anything. That could be another story altogether. I'm a shocker for finishing something and then leaving it without completing its essential purpose.
A case in point is the two edgings I had completed at least two years ago and then put away without putting the edges on to anything. I remedied that last weekend! Finally got out some material I had, hand edged the squares and then handsewed the edging on. Finally! All finished!!!

They look really pretty too. Such a shame it took me so long to finish them totally. Ah well. My fingers finally healed and I can start knitting again so putting down the shuttle for a little while but probably not as long as last time. Just keep it nearby...for when ever I poke a needle through my finger again
Keep happy :)

Pins? Check! Blocking mat? Check!

I made this tatted doiley ages ago but I've never taken the time to block it properly. So, since I'd washed it I thought I would take the opportunity to do so.
I should probably thought it through a little more carefully.
While blocking the middle was no problem, getting the outer areas flat was not easy. Especially since I found I'd made all sorts of errors attaching the wrong picot to the wrong loop.
So, in the end I settled for a minor blocking and then a stiff iron. While the outer picots are not as defined as I might have liked they were better than going through each and every one of them and pulling them straight.

And as you can see, the photo looks pretty special. I know now that I don't need to pull the knots as tight and to be very careful when joining elements that they are actually going where they're supposed to go.
But I'm not sure I have the courage or patience to even look at a tatting shuttle at the moment.

I think I'll keep knitting :)