Weekend recap

Most of the weekend was spent on family adventuring and video game playing. I don't think I picked up a needle once, nor did I get the tiny earrings listed int he shop. I think that was partly because of what happened early Friday morning.

We were out and about early to pick up the afore mentioned video games when I was contacted by several means by a photographer looking to use my masks for a photo shoot this week. If you've been around these parts for a while you know this has happened before and I've had quite the mixed bag of results with the experiences. They rage from lost packages and never used pieces, to actually getting my name in fashion magazines. As you might imagine it's made me a little gun shy. I went ahead and shipped off a large selection of masks to New York though and they appear to have moved quickly toward their destination, yes I checked. I still need everybody to cross their fingers for me that they do arrive safely, get used for amazing photographs that end up in a magazine and then return safely back to me.

Today, I have babysitting of nieces and hopefully get a little time to list those earrings. That's about all that's on tap though. Well that and worrying about everything I wrote in the last paragraph. So here's to a great week and since I spent my own money to ship masks across the country, I could use a week of constant sales too. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Tiny Motifs

Rather than spend time trying to figure out the larger pieces I'm making with the motif, I spent the day working on the small one. Initially I was going to bead the long picots, but I decided they look better in black as part of the structural design, if that makes sense. So instead I opted for a standard, bead the picots, plan.

A couple of folk commented that the beads look a bit cluttered, but honestly I really like that aspect. You know how rarely I use beads, so I guess when I do I like them to really become an element all their own.  As you might have guessed, I then dig through all my supplies to find every color of bead I owned. Joining the last twisted picot with the beads there is slightly more fiddly, but it was worth it.

I've got a listing up in the etsy shop for the pendant now. All the bead options are in one listing.  It's nice and small and I plan on getting a listing up for matching earrings soon, maybe today, or sometime this weekend anyway. Then maybe I'll get back to the larger pieces. Today is the husband's birthday, so it's he has the day off and the plan for the day is all his. The rest of the weekend is pretty plan-less and after all the guests this week, I might just want to enjoy the silence.

Still Working

It was almost back to normal yesterday. We still all felt a little off I think, so instead of starting back into our summer routine, I just let the kids run a bit wild. I'm hoping we can settle back into it today, but that might not be wise either since the husband is off work tomorrow and that will just tilt it out of whack again. Okay, I guess we'll save routine until Monday and call the whole week a wash.

I did get some tatting in amongst all the cleaning though. Initially I was just going to throw the three motifs on a chain and call it a necklace, but I decided to make it more complex. This picture here is the first attempt at that complexity, adding a triangle to the sides. However, I miscalculated the adjustments needed and it ended up a bit big and not quite right.

This is the second attempt on the left and as you might guess, this is the one I'm going to stick with. I really like the shape I got here. Now the bigger questions start to fly. Do I just hang this on a chain, or do I keep working more squares to make it a thick choker? I'm also looking at it as the base of a slave bracelet. I thought regular bracelet at first, but the point would keep flipping up while being worn and finger loop would solve that. Then there's the question of what else I can do with it?

So I suppose today I shall contemplate all these questions as well as work with the tiny pendant idea made from just the first round. At least I have plenty of things to think about today even if I don't have my precious routine back.

More Motifs

The house is back to normal this morning as all our quests, also known as my brothers and sister-in-law have gone home. They were in town for my grandmother's burial yesterday which I did not attend. I'm sure that raises a few questions, but let's just say I'm fine and it's a long, boring story about destroyed and nonexistent relationships that's probably familiar to a lot of people. I did however love having my family back in town even though it destroyed my routine for a few days.

I did get some tatting in yesterday though. I made some changes to the motif doodle I did last week. I added some twisted picots both inside the design and for joining it to another. I managed to get three put together in a 'V' shape. It looks like it has the potential to be an interesting necklace, or bracelet, or any number of things. I love the way that the picots give it more internal complexity.

I even think that I might use the center part as a stand alone piece. With those twisted picots, I think it has just enough character to be a small pendant or earring. I might even go crazy and add some beads or dangles to it and see what that looks like.

I also have yet another day of cleaning and laundry ahead of me. I always feel weird doing things like laundry with guests in the house so it's piled up on me. Hopefully I can balance the creative with the utilitarian and have a nice productive day. If nothing else, at least we'll have our routine back.

Resolved

Unexpectedly, yesterday morning I got another response in the drama I've been lamenting about recently. They relented and apologized. Honestly I did not see that coming, but I am surely glad that it did. I know it will only be a matter of time before something else like this happens again, but I am just so relived that this one came to a amicable conclusion. Big upside for you, no more listening to me complain about it!

I'm afraid I didn't do much else except work on the ankle corsets that I needed to remake. Aside from that, I spent most of the day just hanging out with my brothers and sister-in-law with the kids. So I didn't play with the new motif and I didn't really do much of anything else. It's actually pretty surprising that I managed to finish the ankle corsets at all, but I was determined.

Since those are done and I didn't sell anything yesterday, I'm certain to get round to the motif today. I'm still trying to work out the best way to join two of them so that they are sturdy. I'm not certain what I am going to join them into quite yet, but it seems like the thing to do. So here's to a productive day of problem solving and knot making.