Test Tatting, TIAS 3, and an Update on "It"

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been doing some test tatting for Linda Davies. Linda asked me nicely to show some of the completed pieces. Here are a few parts of her Gladiolus flower that will appear in her next book.


These are the large and medium petals that will produce, well, large and medium flowers once two sets of petals are made for each flower. You can't tell in the pictures, but I used the same shade of Flora 20 thread (# 225) for both sets of petals and the bud.

These next picture are the Gladiolus bud, large and small calyxes. Isn't Linda great? She thinks of everything when designing a new flower. I should note that I have reduced the image size to protect Linda's design. I'm sure everyone understands.

I am also following Jane's TIAS 3 that is currently running right now. This is my progress up to the end of Day 4.

I didn't scan my progress for Days 1-3. I probably won't scan after every day's progress, though it will depend on the number of parts the pattern is broken down in. At this point I haven't the faintest idea what TIAS 3 will become. And I'm not sure I want to know yet; it's so much fun not knowing what you're tatting.

I'm sure everyone remembers "It", from previous posts. If not here is a reminder:


Well, I spent this afternoon working on "It" and I'm proud to say he's not "It" anymore. I'd like to introduce everyone to "Red" (coming up with names isn't one of my strong skills):

I'm not completely happy with some of his fins, but at least he looks like what he is supposed to. Red is a male Betta (or Siamese Fighting Fish). I'm going to try blocking him to see if I can shape his fins better. I should also note that I forgot to add a bead for Red's eye when I was tatting him, so I added it in with Photoshop. Here's a picture of Red's big brother, Big Red (I told you naming isn't a strong skill of mine):

Big Red is the fish that I based Red on. Please ignore the plastic plants in the background. This picture was taken before I put live plants in the aquarium. Now, I know what you are thinking, when will the pattern be available? To be honest, I don't know. I'm not sure I can reproduce Red's fins. I have been thinking that maybe I will write up the pattern (and modify the diagram) for the body and have everybody free tat the fins like I did. What do you think? I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions. I going to count Red as my motif # 21 in the 25 Motif Challenge. That's all for now.