Thursday, April 10, 2008

TattingChic Around the House, Part III


Hello, Here's a little more tatting around the house. This is a little something just for spring, though. On the photo to your right is a tatted ornament I made many years ago. Below it to the left of the ceramic bunny is a tatted egg I designed. The small wreath ornament has a permanent place on my lamp, but the egg gets to come out every spring. I have a few holiday tatted items that come out once a year to add some of their tatted loveliness. It's so fun to dress them up and make them into an ornament or something.
Here's a closeup of the egg. It's one of my designs. Someday I will diagram my patterns, but for now, a pic is what ya get. If it enlarges, you see my horrid practice I had over 17 years ago of adding a tiny, tiny drop (on a pinpoint, mind you) of superglue to the ends. Oh, it has worked beautifully at keeping the ends from undoing themselves, but the discolored spots are there to stay. All I can say is THANK HEAVENS for Magic Thread. A friend from my lace guild taught me how a few years ago. I will never ruin my tatting with that (the glue) again. The egg was tatted with size 40 ecru thread that I bought in a dusty box from an antique store when I was 19. I was soooo excited about that find. This was back before the internet and where I lived it was impossible to find tatting thread.
Next is a closeup of the tatted ornament I made. It once had dried white german statice flowers and the dried roses were once much pinker. It is over 15 years old now so over time the white flowers have crumbled off and the dried roses have lost their color, but the tatting is just as vibrant and strong as it was when I tatted it. I made 12 of them to sell as Christmas ornaments at a Christmas boutique the year they were made. All of them sold except for three. So, two were given as gifts and I kept this one. I don't give a lot of tatting away nor have I sold before or since.



This one has graduated from Christmas ornament to permanent lamp ornament. I don't care how old and faded the flowers are, the tatting is what I love about it.

Thank you for letting me share some of my tatting around my house with you. This concludes my 3 part series of "TattingChic Around the House". Thanks for reading!

21 absolutely fabulous things were said:

Melissa said...

What I want to know is how you did the miracle of getting and keeping the egg in perfect 3D egg shape!!!

Unknown said...

I'm glad you asked, Melissa, The main motif had an egg shape alread so after adding the sides, I blew up a small party balloon inside the egg. Put fabric stiffener all over the tatted egg (it doesn't matter if it gets on the balloon) make sure the tatting is good and saturated with the fabric stiffener liquid. Then hang to dry. I used the tie of the balloon to hang it from with a clothes pin so it got aeration on all sides concurrently. Then, after several days, just pop the balloon and pull it out. If the fabric stiffener causes little "windows" inside the rings or picots just "break the windows" with a pin and scrape it out (after you've popped the balloon. Then your lovely egg or ball or whatever shape will stay that way forever. The main design of the tatting has to lend itself to an egg or ball. The balloon will conform itself to whatever shape as long as you blow it up big enough. That's all it is!

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

Your tatting is beautiful! You have more around your house than I have around mine... at least finished pieces! Thanks for sharing your pictures. Would you like to come organize and decorate my house? I'll let you look at my tatting stash!

Carol Schockling Lawecki said...

Your tatted egg is beautiful and what a clever idea for the motif behind the wreath! Thanks for visiting my site too. And yes, my daughter loved her lunchbox. She used all through grade school and I had to wash it many times to keep it looking good.

Carol Schockling Lawecki said...

I have a question for you about making a post on your blog. When I am in the comments section of your blog, each new entry has a title, for example, this one says "TattingChic around the House Part III". When I go to my comments page, it says untitled. Where do you put the title? I just went to make a new post, and I don't see anywhere where it says title of new post? Thank you!!

Susanne said...

Wow, such a pretty egg. Great work.

Unknown said...

Thank you, Diane, Carol, and Suzanne for all your very nice comments.
To answer yor question, Carol, when you go make a new post on your blog look directly above the field where you type the body of the post. There, above you will find and entirely different field to put your title. In fact, it says the word "title" just to the left of it. Simply type the title of your post in there. Click your curser in the field where you type the main body of your post and up load your photos and such. When you are finished simply "publish" your post and the title is saved with everything else. Hope that helps. Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Toptattyhead said...

Hello tattingchic, thank you for leaving a lovely comment on my tatting demo viedo. I have now put a link to your blog on my blog as I think your blog is lovely. I have read everything on it from top to bottom. The info on the shaping of the egg was very informative.

Unknown said...

Linda, thank you so much for your lovely comment. I would be honored to have a link from your page to mine. I must admit, I already had one from mine to yours. It is such a blessing to part of such a lovely online tatting community. Thank you all so much. You all feel like friends. It really is sweet. Appropriate comments are always welcome here.

NOTE ON SHAPING 3-D ornaments:
Keep in mind with shaping that the piece of tatting already has to look like an egg to be an egg shape or look like a sphere to be a sphere. You cannot make a sphere look like an egg or vice-a-versa. The balloon will only conform to the shape of the tatting it doesn't "make" the shape. The design of the tatting makes the shape. I realized when I replied to Melissa's question above that may not have been clear and I didn't want anyone to try it and get frustrated. Thanks again.

Margaret I said...

Hello, TattingChic. On Etatters, you left me a comment asking for the pattern for my avatar heart. The pattern is by Rosemarie Peel and was given to us as part of the online beginner tatting class sponsored by Georgia Seitz. I call it the lock-join heart as we learned how to do a lock join with this pattern. I tried to reply back to you on etatters but failed. My blog is http://margaretstatting.blogspot.com

Ais said...

WOW!! TattingChic you really have some wonderfully tatted stuff... You really are very talented not just in tatting but you have an eye for decorating stuff the right way too. I guess I can learn more than just tatting from you. :)

Unknown said...

Thanks for stopping by to answer the question, Margaret. If you happen upon a link to the pattern I would love to know about it.

Ais, Thanks so much for your very sweet comments. Keep tatting (when you get sometime). From what you wrote in your blog you sound very busy.

Singtatter said...

That's a very pretty tatted egg! Well done!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much, Singtatter. :)

LadyShuttleMaker aka MadMadPotter said...

Oh I am so behind with everyone's blogs...
Your egg is divine. Well done! Thank you for sharing!

Jeff Hamilton said...

Your egg is awesome! I think you did a really good job on it. You know, most of us probably started finishing ends by using glue of some sort. The Magic Thread trick is a really handy technique to know.

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for your compliment, Ladyshuttlemaker.

Thanks for stopping by Jeff, and also for your comment. I appreciate your trying to make me feel better about the glue, but as you can see superglue is BAD. Sadly, at that time in my life I taught over 40 people to tat and I taught them that horrible practice.
(oh, woah is me)
SUPERGLUE + TATTING = BAD

Carol Schockling Lawecki said...

Thanks for the instructions on adding a title to my posts, but I don't have a box specific for the title. Maybe I do have an older version of blogger.

Gerry said...

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and for your kind words.

Since I had your link, I'm visiting you! I love the egg you tatted. Very cool!

And the large doily on your round table is just stunning.

Unknown said...

Wow, Thank you Gerry, I'm flattered. Thank you so much for popping in. You are welcome here at my blog anytime.

Mónica said...

Hola, soy de Chile, estuve mirando tu blog es muy lindo, también soy de la iglesia de Jesucristo de los SAntos de los últimos días. Un abrazo.