New and Lost

Well I worked on it all morning and I won't go into how many different iterations of chain and bead combos I played with, but I finished the new choker. If it wasn't for this old mannequin that my brother "loaned" me years ago, making the chains on theses sort of piece would be nearly impossible. The problem is always making them lay well on a person, so if I make the chains flat on the table, they always fail at draping, at least on the first try. Of course you probably don't care one bit about all that nonsense. The point is, the necklace is done and hopefully I'll manage to get it listed some time today. I can already tell I'm going to have pricing issues though. This one was a whole lot of work to make.

Unfortunately I just got a message this morning that a package I sent to the Ukraine at the beginning of the month has yet to arrive. It is the first I've sent to that exact country so I have no precedent for how long it should take. The fear is that it is missing, though since there is no tracking to that country I can't be sure of that either. So the plan will be to wait the full 45 days before I can file an insurance claim and send another if it still hasn't arrived. This means I have to make up some barefoot sandals to have ready just in case. I hate lost packages, but it is the price of relying on other services to do business.

I also got an order last night for a custom pair of ankle corsets, so it looks like I'll be making one, then the other. That should make for a busy couple of days at least. I'm going to go ahead and cross my fingers that the 'lost' package arrives though, because that would just be better for everyone.

Choker and Chains

Before I got to tatting yesterday, I played with the prototype a bit. My idea was to use metal chains in between the motifs to tie the piece together a bit better. The idea went over fairly well on on the Facebook page, but I kept having to remind people that this was a prototype and not the final color, nor are those the final chains. It's actually some cheap chain I bought at Michaels that I use specifically for prototyping. So I kept getting the, 'it would look better with (insert color of thread or chain here)'. I love the instant feedback people give over there, but sometimes I have to hold my tongue when folks don't read what has already been asked and answered repeatedly.

Regardless of that very slight irritation, I got to work on the final piece knowing that it should be fairly well received. Unfortunately, this is defiantly a time consuming piece and I'm not even halfway done with the tatting. There were also some suggestions to add a gem or a few, so once I do get the lace done, there will be more playing with chains and beads to get the right mix. There were also suggestions to trade the chain for strands of glass pearls and while it would probably look neat, I have a terrible fear of over-weighting the lace. I know that it's strong, but the more weight it holds, the more likely it is to stretch out of shape or need seriously stiffening to prevent said stretching. I like my lace light and soft. I think it wears better that way and needs far less care.

So today I'll be working on the piece in it's final black shade. There's a good chance I'll get much of it done, but almost no chance that it will make it into the shop quite yet. If by some miracle I do finish it, I still have those cat ears to tat up because I put them aside to work on this. I was also reminded this morning that there is at least one pair of barefoot sandals that I really ought to get remade and back into the shop. I have been really flighty about these things lately and I'm going to chalk it up to being distracted with other 'life' things. I'm made some good progress though and that's a positive, right?

I've Got Nothing

As expected, I got nothing tatted yesterday at all. Not a single knot was made. The morning was schooling, the early afternoon was spent at The Hilmar Cheese Factory for a field trip and the evening was a doctor's appointment with my husband. The entire day was eaten away so I have nothing remotely interesting to share with you this morning.

Today I have a pair of cat ears to tat up and then I should get back to the new necklace. Hopefully that means at least I'll have something tatted to photograph for you nice people for tomorrow's post. Until then though I've nothing else, so here's a picture of the footless cat "helping" us do school work a couple of weeks ago. A cute cat picture makes up for a lack of real content right?

So Much Done

Well I had a pretty productive day yesterday, tatting wise. I finished up all the snowflakes for my mother-in-law. She even popped by in the evening and fetched them, so there is no more pink thread for me to stare at. They were requested as a memorial gift for the daughters of one of her friends that just passed. His favorite color was pink. I personally didn't know him, but it did seem like a nice idea for a keepsake.

Then I got day 8 of the TIAS made up. I have to tell you how funny it is that my oldest daughter has gotten sucked into the 'what is it?' game. She saw me working on it some days back, so I explained the process. Now when she sees the white thread come out she asks if I know what it is yet. I don't and I think it's driving her a little crazy. I think she'll be more relieved that I when the shape becomes obvious.

I even had a little time left in the evening to work on the choker prototype. I got it all the way to it's proposed length and with an adjustable clasp it should be just right to fit anyone. There are a few other things I want to play with on the prototype before I bust out the black thread for the real one, but I'm liking it so far.

I'm not sure what I'll manage to get to today though. We have a field trip right after lunch so I might not get anything at all done. Maybe that's a good thing after yesterday's progress. I could use a bit of a break, but just a tiny one.

Monday Again

Another weekend, another Monday. Oh, so many snowflakes were tatted over the weekend. In fact, that is pretty much all I did besides the normal errand running and adventuring with family. Of course you've seen the snowflakes over and over again, so I didn't bother taking any photos. In fact the only thing I did take a picture of was day 7 of the TIAS. I almost didn't even get around to that either which is why the photo is so dark.

I actually still have two more snowflakes left to make and I'm actually suffering a little soreness in my arms from getting to them so quickly. Though honestly, it's good practice to speed tat every once in a while. You know, just in case I need to again any time soon. Yes, that was wishful thinking.

Other than those snowflakes I have no orders to worry about. So there's a good change I'll get back to the new choker prototype and get that finished up before I forget the neat things I wanted to try out with it. I've no idea if any of them will be 'good' neat things, but I have to try them to find out. So here's to a nice, creative day ahead and a week of, let's go with wonderful. Aim high, right?