She said, "Did you ever finish my green bracelet?"

 So, my response was, "Er, um, well... I lost the paper that I wrote your wrist measurement on, last year...or has it been 2 years? You wanted the Celtic in green with gold beads, didn't you!"

Awkward... my bad.

So, I measured her wrist with a paper napkin (we were at a restaurant) and I've started the bracelet, finally! It's for an extremely wonderful lady who does so much good for others, including collecting toys for children and driving the truck herself to an impoverished area to deliver them for Christmas. Yes, I do know a real Mrs. Santa Claus! Her first name is Grace.

I'm working on the bracelet now!

 A new batch of "Snowflake" hand dyed thread has been added to my shop on Etsy. Between that and the bracelet for Grace, I will keep out of mischief!

Tigereye hand dyed

Inspired by the colors of a Tigereye gemstone and earthy autumn colors, I've dyed a batch of this thread. Some of got tatted into "Feather" earrings, and I like how the colors worked out in the pattern. I stiffened them a bit by brushing on some fabric stiffener onto the back only, to leave the natural sheen of the thread untouched on the front. Sometimes I stiffen my tatted jewelry in this way, sometimes I don't - it all depends on if the piece seems to need it or not. Since the "feathers" have a lot of picots and the top chains are not connected to anything, I thought it best to add some stiffening to help them stay in shape.

Loops, leaves, and heart

The loopy earrings above are a new experiment, my original, no pattern. I used a Celtic shuttle (such as the type sold on Handy Hands Tatting) to weave in the loops. I wire wrapped the earwires of niobium myself, a technique I learned in Lisa's Craftsy class.

Actually, the base of the pattern will be one of the classes that I'll teach at IOLI convention in 2016 as a beginner/intermediate pattern, but the fancy loop layer is not included. I think everyone should be encouraged to have their own creative time and the fun of discovering new possibilities. 

The leaf earrings are both patterns that are already in my Etsy shop and Craftsy pattern store. I think hand dyed thread is great in autumn leaves!

The Unfolding Heart pattern is also one that I've had available for quite a while. The pattern itself does not include anything about beads. I added the beads, lock charm, and brass filigree to make a unique necklace. So often people ask how they can make something to look exactly like the picture. But, it's better to take the ideas learned and change things up a bit to come up with something that's different, don't you think? No two leaves, snowflakes, flowers, anything in nature is an exact duplicate of another. Nature loves variety!

Eclectic mix

In this pair of tatted earrings, I added some wire wrapped dangles as well as forming the earwires myself. Skills I learned in Craftsy classes, such as Aga Kruk's beginner class and Lisa Niven Kelly's class. These are affiliate links, so I hope you'll check them out :)

The basic tatting pattern that I started with for this pair is my own "Giddy" pattern, found in my "Tatted Jewelry" book. Photo below of the pink earrings shows results tatted exactly according to the pattern. So, the blue-green ones are a fancified variation. It seems that I just can't stop myself from mixing things up :)

Hand dyed thread "Sugar Maple" is now in my Etsy shop! Next batch to come soon will be "Parakeet", which is what I used in the bluegreen earrings.