My 2nd Craftsy class coming soon! A chance to win a FREE class!

That's me on the Craftsy set with a project in progress.

What all the "spoiler" teases were about earlier this year :)
My 2nd tatting class on Craftsy, "Next Steps In Shuttle Tatting" will launch on August 17th, 2015.

My dressing room.
They gave me
star treatment!

Some of you may be wondering how a Craftsy class is made. Well, first you need to have developed a high level of skill and unique, original ideas for a craft that you really enjoy, and would like to help others learn the techniques. Then, submit your idea for a class to Craftsy. If your class proposal is accepted, the Craftsy team works with you via email and phone calls to guide you in preparing to teach your class.

The video filming takes place at the Craftsy Studios by a crew of professionals. All the takes for the video have to be completed in 3 days or less, so there is a lot of work and preparation that needs to be done prior to the trip. I had to prepare each of my 7 projects for the class to various stages of completion, so that all the lessons would be ready to go without waiting. I also designed and wrote the patterns for each of the projects. The patterns are all original and entirely new, not available anywhere else, and are included with the class.

For this class there were 3 cameras, one facing me, one to my left, and one directly above. They had 2 microphones on me, so even though my voice is rather quiet, there should be no difficulty hearing me on the video.

The projects for this new class are not beginner projects, but if you feel comfortable shuttle tatting double stitches, rings, and chains, you'll enjoy this class! I'll talk more about the projects and techniques in another post.

The Craftsy studios are a wonderfully creative place! This is part of their lunch area.

View from the hotel which was very, very nice. This is the Denver Performing Arts Center, just down the street.

Summer Trail

 Freshly hand dyed batch of "Summer Trail" thread has been added to my Etsy shop, in a variety of sizes.
The earring project that I started in a different hand dyed thread, "Roses", caused quite a stir on Facebook and even got a few favorites on Twitter, but I still haven't had time to finish. It'll have to wait until next week. This weekend I'll be at Shake Rag Alley teaching a beginning shuttle tatting class. A beautiful natural setting to learn tatting in!

I added joining picots for extra stability to the top rings, not shown in the original pattern from "Up and Tat 'Em".

Wooded surroundings at Shake Rag Alley

Done, written, shipped

My original projects pictured are now done, patterns written, teaching application forms filled out, packaged, and shipped off to the jurying committee to be considered for classes at the 2016 Bead&Button Show.

I must admit to being a little bit overwhelmed at being the only tatting teacher there, so I do encourage others who use beads in tatting to submit classes as well. You need to be a resident of the USA or Canada. Teachers from other than these countries may apply to teach, but will need to be sponsored by a United States company due to VISA regulations. More information is on the Bead&Button Show Teaching Application.

I now need to get back to labeling my hand dyed thread skeins ("Celery" green is in my Etsy shop), finish up some orders, and get outside to enjoy some summer sunshine while it's still here. Also, I need to make sure that I have all the supplies needed for the tatting class that I'm teaching at Shake Rag Alley on August 1. Looking forward to that!!!

Hoping this'll do

I like how my new design turned out, but I'm not sure what artistic title to give it. Ideas?

The comments given in my previous post were very helpful - thank you! Actually I had them in mind while continuing to design. This pendant probably doesn't resemble anything suggested! I really don't know how to explain why that happened. But, a special thank you to muskaan and Ninetta for the technique of curled rings!

Since time is running short, I'll just have to write up this pattern and submit it to the selection committee. I may get a few different color combos done, but I'll stay away from teal and gold for a while, because I got thoroughly sick of that color combo during my experimenting :)

Greater Milwaukee Tatting Guild meeting today! More info on the guild blog.

Possibly something like this

This is what I've come up with so far; I'm trying for an original, intermediate level project that would impress the selection committee for the Bead&Button Show. Thoughts?

It would be worn as a necklace, with the neck cord attaching to the uppermost small ring on either side. Skills taught would include bead picots, core beads, bead inside a ring, curled rings, folded rings, floating rings, reversing chains.

The sample in the photo is only my prototype, in which I did a lot of un-tatting and re-tatting, testing different ideas. I'll tat a new version to send in to the committee. I'm not sure about the colors, so I'll try some different colors, and the design might morph into something totally different! But, at least it's a start. I just received an email from Bead&Button stating the deadline for submissions as August 7th! So, I need to keep at it! Also, I need to come up with a new beginner project or two for the basics class.

Scheduled dye batch for later this week will be "Celery".

Under construction

View of the road construction work through my front door

Dump trucks and digging machines are the sounds of summer this year. I sure hope the UPS man finds a way to deliver the box of white tatting thread that I ordered from Handy Hands, or I won't be able to continue my hand dyeing business on Etsy! I'm totally out of thread! Yes, I know I should have ordered before the supply got so low, but all of my focus previous to this point was on preparing for the class that I was teaching in Colorado the 3rd week of June.

The class seemed to go pretty well, even though I had a lot of projects to demonstrate and many topics to try to remember. You'll find out more about what I was doing in that class in a few weeks - spoilers! ;-)

Since that's now behind me, I've started experimenting again, to try to come up with a new design. Photo at left shows I haven't done much. The way my brain works, I have to tat a pile of messes before something with possibility appears. Then, I go from there.

I plan to try to submit an intermediate tatting class besides a basic tatting class to Bead&Button Show for next year. The projects, including patterns, are due by mid-August! They expect projects to be astounding, so we'll see if I can come up with anything that would be accepted.