Bookmark From TattingChic

I mentioned a while back that I was involved with a tatting exchange. Well, the exchange is over. We tatted, mailed our bookmarks, and the bookmarks have been received. As the title indicates, TattingChic was my exchange partner. This was a private exchange, by the way. I'm only going to show the bookmark I received today. I'll show off what I sent TattingChic in my next post.

Here is the bookmark I received from TattingChic, first the back:

And then the front:


Isn't it pretty? This is LaRae Mikulecky's Celtic Bookmark. TattingChic mentioned in the card she sent that the site that the pattern was located on has gone down. However, I did find the pattern in the Internet Archive. If you've never been here before, you simply type or copy&paste the link you want to find into the box with the large "Wayback Machine" logo and click the "Take Me Back" button. Here is the link to the above pattern. For the bookmark, TattingChic used Lizbeth size 20 in Denim and Light Medium Blue as well as an unidentified green in size 20. TattingChic chose the colours and the pattern to be as "manly" as possible. I think she did an awesome job. Thank you TattingChic!!!

TattingChic also sent a really cool card, which was also chosen for being the mostly manly, or (as she put it) the least girly she had. I love it too.

I'm not sure if you can see, but the buildings at the bottom has a really cool 3D look. The 3D effect is much more pronounced in real life. Thanks again TattingChic.

In unrelated news, I am toying with the idea of offering free shipping for my chainmaille jewelery and accessories for the month of December. I'm thinking the free shipping offer would apply for North America, but world shipping could be reduced by half or so. We'll see. Yeah, I know. December starts tomorrow.

That's all for now. I'll post again in a few days, showing the bookmark I made for TattingChic, and hopefully the Jane Eborall design that I should finish tonight. Later.

Gina's Gingerbread Boy

I love this pattern! Ever since I saw it, I wanted to tat it.

You'll probably want to click on the image to see it better. I'm not sure why, but I tend to get pretty funky scans when using a white background. I adjusted the image a bit to make it easier to see. The pattern is from our very own Gina B, The Tatting Goddess. There is a link on Gina's blog to get the pattern, you will need to click the esnips link at the top of Gina's "Patterns & Tutorials" list on her sidebar. The pattern isn't hard, but you do need to pay attention to it for the proper joins, and the outer round of chains and the frosting round are (kinda) free tatted (ie: Gina just gives approximate stitch counts, you will need to adjust them to your own tension). I should mention that I did make a few mistakes (I think, it still worked out). I joined the head to the wrong rings on the body. Gina mentioned that a join was needed on one beaded picot, but I didn't mark which one. This join caused the top beaded ring to become heart shaped. I also added the first eye between the wrong set of small and large rings, and my attempts at adding the second eye to match the first were wrong as well. However, I will be making this pattern again; I was going to give this one away, but I don't want to now. Some stats: I used Lizbeth size 20 thread in colour #692 brown and DMC Cordonnet size 20 white for the frosting. This will be #5 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

This is actually an important day for me. Two years ago, I contacted Gina for the first time about this pattern. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me two years to finally tat the pattern. Though I only tried the pattern three times; the second time was right after I contacted Gina. Both previous attempts were not completed. I am glad I finally tatted the Gingerbread Boy. Thank you Gina for the pattern. Till next time.

New Chainmaille Project, and it Has Tatting

If you've been to my shop recently you may have seen what I am talking about. I am talking about my Byzantine Scissor Fobs:


I did a fairly exhaustive search of Etsy, and couldn't find anything like this, so I am confident that I am the first person (on Etsy, anyway) to have come up with this idea. The scissor fobs are actually a scaled back version of another idea of mine. My initial idea was a chainmaille Chatelaine, but I scraped that idea since I was unsure of how practical it would be. And plus, I have no need for one. Anyway, the above scissor fobs are made of aluminum and anodized (coloured) aluminum. The byzantine section is about 3.5 inches long with about 2 inches of plain chain to facilitate attachment to the scissors.

Now, many of you may be wondering where the tatting comes in, well, you see the large split ring on the end of the fob? You can use that to attach beads, trinkets, etc. to it. That includes tatting:

See? This is one of Marilee's Carnival Earrings added to my prototype scissor fob. Isn't it pretty? Assuming they sell well, I hope to add other chainmaille weaves to my scissor fob line.

That's all for now. My next post should be completely tatting related. Later

Featherline Snowflake

As usual, the title says it all. I finally managed to tat Jon's latest snowflake. Actually, I tatted it about a week ago, but am only now posting it. I won't keep you in suspense.

Actually, I will for a bit. I want to thank everyone who commented on my last post. I'm glad you all liked my costume, especially since I don't normally dress up (I really want to stress that). In case anyone is interested, the tutorial I used to make the horns can be found here. Not sure why anyone else would need to make horns but ......

Now for Featherline (click the name for the pattern). I might as well start with a photo:


I'll admit it up front; this is my second attempt at the pattern. And I didn't do it justice. I don't believe there is anything wrong with the pattern; it's me. I didn't follow the instructions. I followed the diagram. Now, I like diagrams; I prefer diagrams. And there isn't anything wrong with Jon's diagram, it's still me. You see, Jon made the snowflake, so that the centre is done using SCMRs and thrown off rings. You then tie and cut. Then the second round is tatted. I figured I could tat the snowflake continuously and jump from the centre to the second round with no tie and cut.

Well, you can. Was it worth it? Meh. You really can't tell where I split-ringed (there are three split rings) out of the centre to the next round. I can, but its my snowflake. I'm going to tat the snowflake again, probably in a different colour. Speaking of colour, the thread I used is Lizbeth size 20 in colour #605 Silver. Its not a metallic silver, though it would be totally cool if Lizbeth made a metallic thread. A guy can dream. I would think that this thread (and its gold counterpart, which I also have) would look awesome when used with a metallic filament thread. I'll have to try it sometime. In size 20 thread, the snowflake is about 3 inches from point to point. This will be #4 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

That's all for now. My next post probably won't be tatting related. I have been working on a new chainmaille product line. I won't give any details, except that its not jewelry. I want to get the pages for Etsy made first before posting here. I might be the first person to think of this idea. Till next time.