Thursday, October 6, 2011

Black Bedazzled Butterfly tatted necklace


The necklace that I've been working on is done! The pattern is from my Boutique Tatting book. I did some extra embellishing on this one, adding tatted connectors to the neck chain and making the antennae a bit more fancy, but otherwise it is just as written in the book. The thread in this model is Lizbeth size 20, the beads are Swarovski pearls sizes 4mm and 6mm, and the seed beads around the outer edge are size 11/0.

Here's a short video showing the outer chain tatting in progress, with lock joins and bead picots.



Note to experienced tatters: after trying the lock joins both ways (pulling UP through the picot, or DOWN through the picot) I decided that the up join worked best for this design element. The reason: the up join tends to make the edging turn slightly upwards, which is what I want for the front of the necklace. A detail that most people won't notice, but that is just how it is with details, we do them to please ourselves, don't we :-)

Other news: someone asked if I had thread dyed in grey to crimson like my I.D. photo. Well, at the time I didn't (the photo effect was created digitally) but, I do now! At least until it gets scooped up by Etsy shoppers!

11 comments:

victats@gmail.com said...

Just as an endorsement...I've done that pattern and it was lovely to work up. I like the way you did the chain.

Karrieann said...

...saaaaaweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

TAT19540 said...

Yeah butterfly done. What next??!! Yummy color. Thanks for the video!

Fox said...

Lovely.

I found the lock join explanation very interesting in that I often notice the direction of a completed stitch with regard to an upward or downward join.
Fox : )

God's Kid said...

Your butterfly necklace is amazingly elegant and so sophisticated looking! :)

John said...

Beautiful!

LittleBerry said...

Lovely piece of work and found the video useful (only being a novice) - but missed the #20 in the new colourway but managed to grab a #10 in it

Margarets designer cards said...

Beautiful pattern and lovely necklace, thanks for sharing your video.
Margaret

modiga said...

incredible. i want to learn this thing. http://tattingpatern.blogspot.com/

tattrldy said...

Oooo! that is sooo pretty! I, too, pay attention to the "ups" and "downs".

Sarah said...

Beautiful work,, as always!