Kicking around a new bracelet idea

Began on Wednesday with a completely different idea for a stackable, not too fancy, 2 color bracelet design and somehow the result in the photo above happened. I am not sure if it's ugly, or if it's cool and interesting. Well, I'll try the next one with purples, maybe some tweaks of the design, and we'll see how that looks. ☺

Hand dyed thread batch is in progress but won't be ready until early next week. The batch will be "Peace" inspired by the Peace rose.

Speaking of roses, I simply must post this photo of one of my other roses that really posed beautifully for its photo: "Charles Darwin", one of the English roses.

Last week I added a pair of Small Maple Leaf earrings to my Etsy shop. I used red for the center of the leaf, and hand dyed thread from the "Nectarine" batch for the outside edge.

Nectarine and wire projects

 

New this week in my Etsy shop is a fresh batch of "Nectarine" hand dyed thread. Of course, the nectarine in the photo was promptly eaten after the photo was taken! I only use Procion MX fiber reactive chemical dyes for my hand dyed thread. (^◡^ )

Tatted earrings, my own Celtic triangle design, with handmade wire-wrapped niobium ear wires and glass teardrop beads. The pattern varies slightly from the Celtic triangle taught in my Next Steps In Shuttle Tatting class on Craftsy, but it's made using the same techniques. The thread used was size 20, 3 colors of hand dyed, one of which is from the "Stardate" batch.

Earlier this month I finished another wire-wrapped pendant with tatting:

The thread used was sizes 10 and 20 of "Stardate" along with a light blue. The teardrop is an Amazonite stone, purchased from TerraFinds. The wire is non-tarnish Parawire in "Titanium" color, 18 gauge for the frame, 28 gauge for the weaving. The half drilled stone was wrapped in 24 gauge.

I'm really pleased with how well the hand dyed silk ribbon purchased from Quintess looks with the pendant!

Mixed media jewelry with tatting

 

What I usually do is pick the colors first! 

The hand dyed thread I chose for the tatted "flowers" is from the Misty Morning batch, along with some from Blue Skies, both size 10, as well as some size 20 Lizbeth in a solid light blue. 

The teardrop focal bead is Czech glass from BastetsBeads. 

The bronze colored non-tarnish wire is from Bello Modo. I used 16 gauge for the frame, 20 gauge for wrapping the focal bead, and 28 gauge for wrapping the tatting onto the frame. When wire wrapping tatting, I always wrap over the tatted double stitches, avoiding placing wire over a single thread, in order to keep the result as durable as possible. 

The tatting is a random arrangement of Josephine rings and chains of encapsulation technique, with the extra threads carried inside the chains until needed.

While wrapping the tatting onto the frame, tiny beads can be added where desired by stringing the beads onto the wrapping wire.

For macramé I like to use nylon cord in 0.5mm diameter. I appreciate the convenience that the many tails left over from macramé can be cut and melted with a lighter to secure them. The tatting knot can be done in macramé, too!

Wire wrapped touches can look very nice added to tatted lace earrings, too. This design is a variation on my simpler "Giddy" pattern which is published in the book Tatted Jewelry. 

(By the way, I no longer receive any royalties from that book, but I'm still pleased that my name is on the cover.)

"Misty Morning" hand dyed batch

 

New batch of hand dyed thread "Misty Morning" is now listed in my Etsy Shop. Shaded blues going into purple with a touch of straw yellow are in this, and I'm really pleased with the result. 

The flower pictures are of the same rose, showing it partially open after a late afternoon rain shower and then fully open in morning sunshine. It's a "Charles Darwin" rose, one of the David Austin hybrids. Planted on June 26, it's a very young plant, so I was thrilled to see it bloom so quickly! This season I also planted another David Austin hybrid called "Heritage" and a new "Peace" rose which has several buds on it. More color inspirations!

The "Flutterby Heart" pattern and video

"Flutterby Heart"

Using my new smartphone camera (which I'm not yet used to, hence some focusing issues) I made a quick video demo of tatting my free, original pattern "Flutterby Heart".

Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/JI5hxX3leRk 

Link to written pattern: https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/8248626/flutterby-heart-pdf-411k?da=y 

The video is in vertical format because I also edited a 1 minute version for Instagram and TikTok from it, and I didn't want to have to video everything in both orientations. But, no worries, I plan to do more YouTube videos in horizontal (landscape) format, since that works better for YouTube.

I've noticed that YouTube viewers tend to prefer short videos of a specific technique, rather than a whole project. so moving forward that's what I'll plan for YouTube. 

On the other hand, both Instagram and TikTok viewers seem to enjoy being "dazzled" by speed edited 1 minute videos showing quick in-progress clips finishing with a completed project at the end. That's how it seems to me, at any rate. 
 

New pattern listed: "Loopy"

Got it done! "Loopy" pattern is now listed in my Etsy shop.

Techniques used include chain, bead placed over a picot, lock join, shoelace trick, ring, using a Celtic shuttle to weave through a tatted motif.

Here's some pictures of color combos I've used this design for: