Friday, April 15, 2011

I'm Back Baby

Aha! What happens when you reach a low point? Well, in my case I was rewarded with a sudden burst of inspiration. Nothing too amazing or earth shattering, but just enough to get me moving again. It started with a brief moment staring at Marliee's new 'trendy teardrop' pattern. There are a lot of tatters I admire for different reasons, but I try to resist working their patterns as they tend to get under my skin & I want to muck with them when I feel I should not. Anyway, I stopped working on remaking things to make up an old medallion with a victorian set edge inspired by that design. The medallion didn't really work out, but it set my brain back into create mode.

Then I did go back and remake a bracelet like a good girl, but the whole time I kept thinking, 'why haven't I made this into a choker yet?' So that was my next stop. The original pattern was a hanky edging that I had already mucked with enough that it's is almost unrecognizable from it's source pattern. I further adjusted the pattern larger with my super guessing math powers which shouldn't actually work, but they almost always do. The enlargement of the design helped it work up a bit faster as well, so I was ready to figure out how to embellish the thing in just a couple of hours.

I kept going back and forth about whether I should add chains or charms or crystals. I wanted it to have an impact as a wider piece, but I generally like to keep embellishments simple too. I opted for sterling silver beads dotting the bottom edge. They sort of give the piece a studded effect. I didn't finish it in time to get good photos of it, but I do have a couple more things that need pictures so I'll try to get around to that today. My cold sore is almost gone, but I'm sure it will still take some extra makeup and some photo editing to make me look decent. Speaking of the cold sore though, I do want to tell you that if you suffer from these little demons, taking the amino acid supplement L-Lysine is a fabulous idea. This is my first cold sore in months and it is to the healing stage in just a few days as opposed to a week or so normally. Being told to try this stuff was among the best twitter advice I've ever gotten so it's only right to share.

So today, pictures to take and just a few small things to remake. It'll be nice to be caught up before I have jury duty next week. I'm also still trying to decide on a celebration for my five year etsy store anniversary...I want to do something, but it has to be easy and not too time consuming. I guess I'll figure it out this weekend. Ah, the weekend. it's back.

5 comments:

Deborah said...

I love your use of color - beautiful stuff!

Audrey said...

Wow!! That is really pretty and I admire your skill very much!!!!
My Grandmother tatted and I am fortunate to have a few of her very old pieces but I could never quite get the hang of tatting myself.
Glad you got your muse back :D
Audrey
aka AudreyGardenLady

Marmalade said...

I've been lurking around for awhile, but I thought I'd say I love your work! And thanks for the tutorials, very helpful to those of us learning the art!

Nikki said...

I love how you used the small beads. I think it does make a nice studded effect. I like how it looks like the beads are just tucked into the choker instead of jutting out of it. Beautiful as always :)

Nikki said...

I was wondering what you use on your tatting to make it stiff? I've been using a spray starch but it just doesn't seem to be doing the trick.