Celery but a different project already in progress

 

A new batch of "Celery" has been added to my Etsy shop. I have wrapped a sample onto a spool and I like it, though I already have another project in yellows in progress. Hmm, maybe I'll decide to add some green!☺ What, exactly, is the project? Actually, I am not sure yet but I've started with triangles from my own "Amoeba Triangle" pattern and we'll see.

"Celery" hand dyed thread

The "Celery" batch being painted with dye - the colors always look darker when wet.

By the way, one of my artworks has been featured in another exhibition!

My "Leaves of Lace Garland" has been showcased in the Earth - 2026 exhibition organized by Exhibizone distributed by Biafarin 

Leaves of Lace featured in Plantarium

 My artwork 'Leaves of Lace Garland' is now being showcased at Plantarium - 2025 exhibition, organized by Gallerium and powered by @Biafarin platform.

To learn more, please go to:

https://www.gallerium.art/plantarium-2025?AW=AW127356608

All of the artwork has a "plants" theme, and there is a wide variety of media used, including painting, sculpture, photography, fiber art, mixed media, etc. There are 105 works displayed. I think you'll enjoy looking at the online exhibition!

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 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:

Leaves from vintage pattern

The pattern is vintage and in the public domain. It's in the Priscilla Tatting Book number 3, and is a free download found on the Antique Pattern Library website https://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/tatting.htm scroll down and look for a green cover. Also found in a House of White Birches tatting book number 5.

The pattern is quite easy to vary in size once the basic pattern is understood.

I began making these a few days ago as "comfort tatting". I don't know how else to explain it. I don't have a predetermined plan in mind but something usually occurs once I have a collection to look at.

 

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.

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!

Leaves

So September has arrived, and in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area it isn't hard to find some leaves that have already changed color. The days are still warm and summery though, and I hope that lasts a while.

A new batch of "Sugar Maple" hand dyed thread has been added to my Etsy shop. That batch always gets "oohs and aahs," but I'm loving how many of the other colorways look good as autumn leaves as well :)
The pattern for the earrings is my own original "Small Maple Leaf."

My dear husband, Jan, has been getting loads of admirers and views for his own Etsy shop, and it's given him something to focus his own creativity on.

The Museum of Wisconsin Art will soon be putting some of my tatted jewelry on display in their gift shop. I'm excited to have my work included there! Also coming up on the calendar is Milwaukee Tatting Guild on Monday, September 9, and Tatting Days in Indiana at the Thread Corner the first weekend in November. Lots to do!

Ginkgo Leaf pattern is ready

The pattern for the Ginkgo Leaf is now finished, and I've listed it for sale in my Etsy Shop. The pattern has instructions for the leaf with or without beads, with many in-progress photos. I consider it an advanced level pattern, mostly because of the folded rings and the Catherine Wheel joins.

But, actually a folded ring isn't really that hard. I think if you can already tat a ring, you'll be able to learn the folded ring easily from the instructions in the pattern.

The Catherine Wheel join is a bit fiddly, but I made a video and a free PDF tutorial on that technique. I like that join for when I want a smooth, outlining curve in a design.

Ginko leaf

My best attempt to approximate a gingko leaf shape in tatting. If there is interest, I may get around to writing up the pattern, but be aware it's a bit tricky.

I used folded rings in the center ( there's a great tutorial on folded rings at Martha Ess' Tatting Page) and Catherine Wheel Joins on the outer edge. I really find Catherine Wheel Joins useful for keeping a smooth curve, and I'm glad Bina of Paradise Treasures introduced me to that technique.

Anyway, in size 20 the Ginko leaf measures about 1 and 1/2 inches across (3.8 cm). I think for earrings I would like it a tad daintier, so I'll try size 30 or 40. In those sizes, wouldn't you know, I don't have any appropriate colors - so off to do more dyeing!

In other news, I enjoyed having a sneak peak at how the nice folks at Annie's Attic are arranging my new book, Tatted Jewelry. It looks like the book will be around 40 pages, and will include many in-progress photos (taken by me) and beautiful professionally taken photos, too. Oh, I'm so excited - just wait'll you see!

The maple leaf pattern is done!

Small Maple Leaf! 

My original tatting design, and the PDF pattern is now listed for sale in my Etsy shop. Instructions are included for both beaded and non-beaded versions.

Cute for earrings, but could also be a pendant, or motifs for scrap-booking, sewing on clothing or quilts, you name it.

I spent many hours experimenting and adjusting the stitch counts to come up with this finished design.

More new leaves

It's so much fun exploring leaf shapes!

Earrings in spite of summer heat

These are not a perfect maple leaf shape, but I think they're cute. Leaves come in so many shapes anyway.

So far no progress on the purple and silver necklace from 2 posts ago. I need to feel "in the zone" for ideas to come, and the summer heat has drained nearly all of "the zone" out of me! I did manage to finish a pair of earrings to match the "Duchess" necklace that is in my Etsy shop. I had to use size 10 thread since I didn't have any size 20 in those hand dyed colors. Usually I like size 20 for earrings. Anyway, I do like the color combination of the thread and beads.