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:

"Loopy" pattern writing is underway

 

A funny thing happened on my way to tatting a pointed collar. 

Some folks made it known that what they really, really wanted was the pattern written up for my "Loopy" set, which is difficult to explain and tricky to tat, requiring a narrow Celtic shuttle. (Needle tatters could probably easily work it but I can only write it up from the shuttle tatting perspective.)

So, I'll be finishing the pattern up maybe this week. The plan is to list it as a PDF in my Etsy shop.

Starting this collar with pearl tatting

Pearl tatting, aka double sided chain

The plan is to tat the top portion only of my fanciest necklace, and write up the pattern just for that much. Only the pointy collar top! Only that much!

Original design combining tatting and beading

Only the collar part (in dark purple in this photo) at the top, not the fancy beaded stone in the center or the rest of it. Although, the flower shapes on either side are a pattern that is already published in Marilee's Beaded Tatting Finery book as "Celtic Hexad".

So far, I've learned that when working with multiple threads, a convenient place to hide the tails is needed, and that place doesn't exist when there are core beads in the final ring!

Attempting to hide the tails ☺

So, although I love the elegant look of the beaded ring, I'll plan to go with a plain ring in the final version. If it gets that far!

Me, wearing my fanciest tatted necklace!