Green and blue earrings

These are based on the same basic design as the previous post. This pair uses hand dyed thread (Celery), blue and green glass beads, plus "embellishments".
A few rings are thrown off the mock ring, with extra-long picots covered with beads. Beads dangling from a long picot at the bottom. I just love that fire-polished 8mm round bead in the center! Those are a little hard to find, but I've seen a few in some shops on Etsy.

Ecru earrings

Ecru?!!!

Yes, sometimes the yarnplayer can tat with ecru :-)

These are very simple! Just load up some beads onto your ball thread. Tat a mock ring (it's just a chain leaving a big loop at the beginning) halfway around a larger bead, with bead picots. Slip the bead onto the loop, put the shuttle through, and snug up the thread, not too tight. Then tat the rest of the way around the larger bead. Lock join into the beginning. Then put some of the ball thread onto a 2nd shuttle to tat the split rings.

More trouble than they're worth

These hair clips with 5 holes seemed like they would work so well for attaching tatting, but I fear the effort of opening and closing them will have all that work looking a sorry mess very quickly. So, on to other things.

Nectarine, Golden Fleece. Dusty, and Knitty Gritty

Here are the colors recently added to my Etsy shop.

"Nectarine" you've seen before, and yes, inspired by the fruit.

The "Golden Fleece" is simply the colors used in my other batch called "Golden Glow", but without the brighter yellow.

The "Dusty" reminds me of the color of my sons' twill pants - sort of dark olive green, but not quite - with some brown added.

"Knitty Gritty" turned out just a little differently from my first batch of this colorway, (this is all hand dyed, after all!) but is very similar.

Several of these are not what I'd call "pretty", but I think they have a place in the color palette, too. More design choices! The "Dusty" might work for tree branches, bark, stones, etc., to set off brighter colors in floral designs.

Adding a jump ring

I want to thank Celtic Dream Weaver for showing me how to add jump rings for jewelry so that they encircle the tatted ring, rather than just joining them to the ring as I had been doing.

 

It is a little more trouble, but it's good to have another choice, and I think it gives a more secure hold.

The thread needs to be unwound from the shuttle to be threaded through the jump ring.

The jump rings I always use in my tatted jewelry are either "split rings" (coiled like tiny key chains), or jump rings that have been soldered closed. The regular jump rings that have an opening are just too risky for fiber jewelry, in my opinion.

There is also a special tool, used by jewelry makers, called a split ring pliers. With this tool, you can open the metal split ring to go over the threads. This can be done while the tatted ring is in progress, or I've also used it to put the metal ring on over the finished tatted ring. Split ring pliers can be bought from jewelry making suppliers, such as Fire Mountain Gems.

November 2010 note: I've added another post about jump ring findings  http://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/2010/11/split-ring-jewelry-finding.html
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Here is also a picture showing my new shuttle from Lady Shuttle Maker! It is one of hers that has that "musical" quality!

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What I am working on in the photo is the "Vision" earring pattern, which is in my "Boutique Tatting" book.

Bag #4

Tatted loop closure, polymer clay button, handwoven original tapestry, all put together into a unique little bag! I do enjoy weaving these, so there will probably be more in this series!