Leaves of Lace Garland is finished

 

"Leaves of Lace Garland" by Marilee Rockley 2024

My leaf project is done! 

I'm quite happy with the results, and since I'm already a subscriber to Fiber Art Now magazine I've gone so far as to sign up for a CaFÉ account so that I can enter my fiber art into exhibitions. Maybe this will give me incentive to do more larger "art" pieces.☺ Of course, we know that all tatting is an art (not lost!) 

Details: There are a total of 32 tatted leaves in this garland. I started with a vintage leaf pattern and modified it to make leaves of varying sizes, adding an edge to the branch end of each leaf so that they could be joined together later. All of the leaves are in size 20 thread, using Lizbeth, Flora, and my own hand dyed to get a variety of colors.

To join the leaves together I chose a dark charcoal gray thread, and tatted 2 rows of chains only, the first row to connect the leaves, and the 2nd row to stabilize the arrangement. The leaves are still free to "flutter". No stiffening was added to them, but my lace is quite firm as I naturally tat tightly.

I made a clasp of polymer clay in a branch and leaf shape to finish the garland.

Progress on the leaf necklace

 

Having completed tatting enough lace leaves (despite being interrupted several times by more urgent matters) I was faced with the question of how to join them all together. One of those creator's block moments. Fortunately, I had some reject leaves left over to practice joining ideas on, which besides giving me an idea of stitch counts showed that green was not the color thread I wanted. Dark charcoal gray shows off the leaves much better! Similar to tree bark from a distance.

This is still a work in progress. I missed the deadline for a juried fiber art exhibit that I had planned to submit to, but there will be others. 

The leaf pattern is vintage, though I tweaked it a little to make different sizes. More about the leaf pattern on this post.

The Winner

 

The winner is "Glass Half Mindful" - please email me at yarnplayer (at) yahoo (dot) com (There wasn't a way to reach you at your blogger profile.)

It was wonderful reading all of the beautiful comments that were posted! So many acts of kindness happening, you all are making the world a better place! Thank you, Thank you!!!

By the way, I didn't include the one commenter who asked to not be included so that's why I put 1  to 31 in the number spinner instead of 32.

Random Act of Kindness Giveaway

 

 To be entered in this giveaway drawing, you need to do 2 things: 
Leave a comment on this post, and do something nice for someone. The world needs more kindness. ♥

The prize package includes:

a rare out-of-print book Minitats by Patti Duff, 

a Japanese tatting pattern book (containing diagrams and excellent photographs),

a tatted necklace and earring set (handmade by me) in my own "Loopy" pattern,

a bobbin lace bookmark (handmade by me) in a pattern by GaliciaBee,

an assortment of my own hand dyed thread!

Readers of this blog from outside of the U.S.A. are welcome to enter this giveaway - but - be aware that even though I'll mark the package as gift, sometimes customs fees may still be charged, unfortunately. (It has happened before.)

I'll chose one winner at random on Monday, October 14. Please be sure there's a way for me to contact you if you win, either a blog I.D. or an email address. And, don't forget to do something nice for someone!

Dark Matter hand dyed thread

 

This "Dark Matter" thread batch was inspired while touring the Yerkes Observatory recently. Dark matter is described on the NASA science web page as a mysterious substance that "doesn’t reflect, absorb, or radiate light – at least not enough for us to detect yet."

My new hand dyed thread is only my fun attempt to give the effect of "outer space" colors. ☺ Now listed for sale in my Etsy shop.

Here's some pictures I took of the telescope and observatory building, which was built in 1897. Learn more at the Yerkes Observatory website.

The tatted leaf project in progress

 

What I've got so far. I'm not sure about adding that stone. Actually, looking at it today I'm thinking it doesn't work with the leaves at all. Apparently this project is becoming an artsy necklace. So, I'll tat more leaves! I do like the colors.

I did finish the "grape" "raspberry" "coral" earring projects that I had mentioned in a previous post, so here's some pictures of that: