Needle on Fire

I mentioned yesterday that my vacation hiatus had done nothing to slow sales(thus far), what I didn't mention is that all the recent orders have been custom pieces. I have been awash in thread, crystals and new lace for the last two days. I despise making people wait any longer than is necessary, so I work as fast as possible. I underpromise with the timeline, always leaving myself some wiggle room, then I do everything I can to shrink that timeline.


I finished up the second of two custom Portrait collars, one of which was done with two colors. I don't know how many times I've mentioned my dislike for two color work, but I can't stress enough how cumbersome the process is. Sure, I've refined it over the years. I know better how much thread I need to cut off and I work with the second color off the ball to reduce the tangle of thread surrounding me, but it requires slow and deliberate work to make it look as nice and cohesive as a one color piece. I won't go into the slight setbacks that also occurred with these pieces, because it all worked out in the end. I still have three other custom pieces I'm working on as well, so I'm a bt busy.

I've also been getting a lot of messages lately. Some folks sharing their tatting adventures with my instructables, some asking for patterns and some interesting custom requests including a face veil. I don't know if I'm taking on the veil project yet, I haven't even worked out possible patterns yet, as I've got enough to work on as it is. I also got a great picture of one of my masks in the wild. It's being worn by one of my lovely customers known as CircusFreak. I think she looks amazing in the Valentine Evenings mask so I had to share. I wish more customers would send photos my way and one day I'll have one of those neat websites with a customer gallery or something. You know, one day, when I have free time.