Just a mess right now

Designing in progress

Aqua/teal has been added to the purple and gold color scheme. Flowers are in progress, but I won't connect any of the motifs together until I have enough for the complete arrangement. I have been dreaming big, even thinking of entering the Bead Dreams competition. 

Beading around a druzy stone.

I found 2 small but stunningly beautiful druzy stones in my stash, so they simply had to go into the design somehow. I beaded a peyote stitch bezel and added beaded "picots" so that tatting can be joined around them later.

I'll be playing cello in this concert!

Concert this week! I'm busy practicing to be ready to play. I love being a member of this orchestra, it's so supportive, encouraging, and really amazing!

Hand dyed thread "Gold Dust"

Freshly dyed batch of "Gold Dust" thread has been added to my Etsy shop!

My original designing for the yet unnamed challenging necklace project is still in progress. I found some high quality Amethyst stones at the local bead store and stitched a peyote bezel around them. After that, I dug out some Lizbeth and Flora threads in 2 shades of purple and began tatting around the larger stone. I think I'll incorporate the smaller stone closer to the neckline. 

I did one 3D flower in hand dyed Hydrangea Dark. It turned out nicely enough that I'm considering doing a cluster of them in different shades. I don't know if I'll add any green for leaves or not. The addition of green would give the necklace a Mardi Gras color theme, and so far I like the "royal" look of the purple and gold on its own. But, we'll see. I'm just making it up as I go! 

Unfinished necklace, original designing in progress

Other Ideas Brewing

 While still thinking about how to proceed with my current tatted necklace project, I did manage to complete my very first multi-strand necklace in bead stringing. No tatting in it, but posting the picture here as I'm rather pleased with the result! ☺ I don't remember where I got the metal circles that I used, and for all I know, they might have been a gift from one of Lace-lovin' Librarian's "doo-dad" mixes!

 These earrings are old (well, about 8 years old) but I like them. I'm starting to think that there might be a way to add that design element to what I have in progress. The design, not the color. I'm sticking with the purple and gold theme I have going. The goal in mind is to come up with something fancy to submit to a magazine or a competition.

Slow going, as I have many other distractions, including practicing for 2 concerts that I'll be playing my cello in, as part of the Wisconsin Intergenerational Orchestra. More info on that here: https://www.wiorchestra.org/performance-dates

Hydrangea Dark

New batch of "Hydrangea Dark" is now listed in my Etsy shop. This is the thread color that I used for these tatted earrings.

I also dyed a very small amount of "Hydrangea Light" in size 20 only. I experimented by watering down the Hydrangea Dark colors and adding a pink.

The only tatting I did this past week was to add on a little more to my Celtic motif. I think I'll keep going and see what happens!

Celtic Motifs

 Size 40 Lizbeth and hand dyed resulted in a motif just over an inch wide, so I thought it would do nicely for earrings. I used my own design, a variation of the Celtic Triangle taught in my "Next Steps In Shuttle Tatting" Craftsy class http://shrsl.com/qo0s (affiliate link which gets me a little extra money when people purchase a class after clicking it).

For the pendant I used size 10 thread that produced a motif almost 2 inches wide. 

 Yesterday I attended a meeting of Greater Milwaukee Tatting Guild. We're a group of friends who get together at the food court of a local shopping mall and tat. Usually every month, but taking a winter break so the next meeting is planned for February.

I started another Celtic tatting motif at the meeting, using Lizbeth metallic for one of the elements and adding some of Karey Solomon's hand dyed thread from Graceful Arts Fiber Studio. I'm happy with the combination so far!

Voted

 Longest line I ever saw in the local polling place today. I'm mildly surprised and hopeful for the future.

This pair of tatted earrings is from my Carnival pattern in hand dyed thread "Hydrangea Dark". There isn't any of that thread in my Etsy shop currently, but I just may put that colorway on the next hand dyeing "to do" list.

 Since I tend to tat very tightly, most of my tatted earrings are stiff enough without adding any stiffener. However, if needed, I paint some on the back of the tatting using a brush.

This pair is made from "Berry Sundae" hand dyed thread. My own pattern (Grand Aura), but I noticed that my tatting is at a tighter tension than 8 years ago when I designed it. So, I had to add 2 more double stitches around the center bead to get it to fit. That worked!

Sue's Blues

 I dyed a fresh batch of "Sue's Blues" thread. The story behind the name is that it is, indeed, called Sue's Blues after a friend of mine named Sue. Now, I do have several friends that go by the name of Sue, so let each of them think that I named it especially for her!

Here's a pair of earrings tatted from size 20 "Sue's Blues" thread.The design is based on the "Giddy" pattern in the book "Tatted Jewelry" published by Annie's Attic. I fancied it up a little with more seed beads, my hand formed niobium ear wires and an Argentium silver wire wrapped dangle at the bottom.

Sue's Blues coming soon

The picture shows an old batch of "Sue's Blues" being tatted into an earring at my workbench. A fresh batch of Sue's Blues will be underway in a few days. My assistant (dear husband) will have more time to prepare skeins for me now that his seasonal job of working at the ballpark is done for this year.

I did finish tatting the earrings started in last week's post, so here they are:

Thread color is hand dyed "Pizazz" and pattern is "Trendy Teardrop".