Pearl Tatting?

Oh, how susceptible I am to suggestion. Please do not use this knowledge to manipulate me in the future though. Anyway, I got a quick note on YouTube asking if I had done a needle tatting video of pearl or maltese tatting. I responded that I had not and received a link back to some static photos to 'inspire' me to perhaps do so in the future...thanks for that Georgia. I had of course heard of the technique, but really saw no reason to learn it at this point. The patterns I'd seen using it didn't really appeal to me, but throughout the course of the day my lack of knowledge in this ate at me until I had to sit down and give it a go.

My first attempts were using the single needle, two colors and both hands. Boy was that a challenge. I finally got the hand of tatting with the other hand when I realized two things. One, I can now teach lefties to needle tat which may lead to a left handed video once I get a little smoother with it. Two, I didn't have to tat with both hands at all to achieve the pearl chain. All I had to do was turn the needle and tat the other thread with wrong side tatting.

I think I may soon find a reason to use the technique, but there are a few things I need to perfect first. Since you have to pull both working threads through the center I need to tat a little looser so it's easier to accomplish. I suppose I could use a third thread as a core and that might solve some of the issues, but honestly, I'm just figuring this all out as I go. I was too lazy to really search for complete instructions. Most of the ones I found just illustrated the chain in progress, never closing. Also I really don't like how all the threads end up in such different places when you finish the chain or ring and I'm sure the core thread fixes that. I guess I'm just muddling through.

In other news the spiders are ready as free gifts with purchase from the etsy shop. I posted it both in the shop and on my facebook page. I've got plenty of them made up so they'll likely last through the Halloween season.

SPIDERS

Sometimes you just don't know where the day will take you. Yesterday took me to spiders. Lots of little tatted spiders. Why? I have no idea. Honest, I'm sitting here trying to remember what prompted me to work up that first little spider, but I'm coming up blank. What I do know is after I made that one I proceeded to dig through my grab bag of supplies for red and black beads and became determined to kill off the rest of a waning ball of thread with the little buggers.

I even used the opportunity to try out several different methods of making the same piece. Once the beads were gone I made some more plain ones until the thread was gone and the result is this small spider armada. What am I doing with them, you ask? Well I grabbed a few of them and made a pair of earrings and a necklace with some costume jewelry chain. You know, the mystery metal available in Michaels on a spool. At least I know it's lead free. Anyway, since the findings are so cheap I listed them as very inexpensive Halloween pieces.

The remaining spiders will be with purchase giveaways. I'm still trying to decided how best to set that up, but it should be soon. When I first started selling I would give customers a tatted bookmark with their order. This was of course back when the sales came once or twice a month and I had plenty of time to make up extra things. I look back and sigh at that since I probably spent more time on the 'free' thing than their actual purchase, but you can't go back. These spiders however are quick and easy.

I'm still sitting in a sales dry spells and my supply order won't be here for days, so I begin today with no project on tap. Again, we will just see what nonsense I get up to without an agenda.

And Done

Ah, another day exactly as planned. I pressed the new pieces and got them all listed in one sitting. So that's brings us to a total of six new colored journey bracelets with earrings to match. I thought about making some more in other colors, I still have many rolls of Lizbeth that have yet to be cracked open, but I was getting bored with myself. Instead I buckled down and got that supply order put in that I've been stalling about. I really hate doing them for a few reasons. One, they cost a lot. Two, I always forget something only to remember it days later. And three, I always end up buying something completely unnecessary to get my item count high enough to reach the next discount level. I still haven't remembered what I must have forgotten to order this time, but the other two points are alive and well.

So that brings us to today's tasks. I need to finish remaking the necklace I was working on yesterday and then my day is wide open.  There is nothing left to remake and I guess I could bust open more thread colors or maybe I'll get creative and make some one offs. Though my shop is getting rather full and I fear difficult to navigate. Maybe I'll check my masks and see what is still listed as custom there and get those made. Yeah, I have no idea what I'll get up to, but you're certain to hear about it.

More Color

Sometimes the day plays out exactly as I write it will in the morning. I suppose you could call that a self fulfilling prophecy, but a rather boring one. Maybe I should start writing more interesting predictions for the day and see what happens. So anyway, I went ahead and listed the new fall color bracelets and earrings in the afternoon. While nothing flew off the shelves, the green and orange shades got plenty of views and hearts...the golden shade got no love. I decided that it wasn't a horrible idea after all and got to work on three more sets. I keep calling them sets, but I did list them separately, so I suppose that's not really correct, but you get the idea.

For the second batch I went with some more darkened shades, though these ones actually remind me more of Winter than Autumn. There is burgundy, brick and dark mocha brown. I really like this Lizbeth burgundy, it has a nice purple base where my other burgundy shades lean more toward orange undertones. So today I'll get these all pressed and listed as well. I also got one of the two necklaces I needed to remake done up yesterday so today I might get to the other. It's an ivory one and I think I might be dangerously low on ivory thread. I know I'm getting dangerously low on many supplies, so it's probably time to bite the bullet and make a giant supply order again. Better now that when the holidays are closer I suppose, but I do so hate digging through all my tubs to determine what needs ordering.

I wish I had more interesting bits to share with you, but it was a pretty down day. Hopefully today will bring a surprise or two and I'll be a more interesting read.

Is It Fall Yet?

Let's see, what did I do over the weekend? Not too terrible much really. There were the usual errands and visits and the temperature here dropped from 102º Friday to 80º Saturday. Oh, and it rained a little both Saturday and Sunday. Sure, this isn't all that interesting, but it put me in an odd mood. I got a escutcheon bracelet made for the shop and I went ahead and remade a couple of necklaces that the shop was missing. Hell, I even sat down and put the hardware on a pile of jewelry and it takes a lot or me to want to do that.

Then I decided that it felt like fall. Never mind that according to the weather reports that it will be right back to summer for the rest of the week. It felt like fall yesterday when I decided to break open some of the wonderful colors of thread that I rarely use outside custom orders. I wanted to just make up some bracelets and earrings that felt like fall so I made a version of my Journey bracelet in harvest orange, gold and green. I still have a brick red and a purple based burgundy that I'd like to use as well, but even I can only tat so fast.

So up for today is some more remaking as I was lucky enough to snag a couple of sales over the weekend. They have been very sporadic lately, coming in bursts and then disappearing for days, so I never know when I'll be busy. Then I'll get back to the fall colors and try to get some of them listed today. It will be nice to have more colors in the shop if for no other reason than to really show customers the available colors. So that's it for me, nothing else of interest. Let's go out there and have a good week, shall we?