Monday, April 28, 2008

Tatting has come a LONG way baby!

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This is a super "close up" picture of a tatted parasol that I was told is over 200 years old. It is tatted with size 100 or smaller thread. This was tatted before the discovery of the "picot join", so as you can see every join is hand tied together. Can you imagine?
Here is another picture of the same piece:
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I have a lot of respect for my foretatters! I wish they could see what we are doing now. And it makes me so excited to see where tatting is headed. We are limited only by our imaginations.

I leave for Korea 1 week from today. Yikes, it's all happening too fast! I got absolutely zero tatting done this weekend. I was delusional when I thought I might have time to tat...ha! I am busier than Lucy at the chocolate factory!

I wanted to share more pictures from Shuttlebirds:
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I took a "Block Tatting" class from Bev Dillon, who is a marvelous lady! Block tatting seems to be all the rage right now and I tried it awhile back but I felt like I was doing something wrong. I am a visual learner people, I NEED to see it demonstrated. Guess what? I was doing it wrong and Bev set me straight... and now I have lot's of designing ideas...Whoo hoo! The above picture is block tatting from my friend Karen. Isn't her work lovely? She picked it up right away and we had a lot of fun in class talking about future block tatting ideas!

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Here is a picture of me and Mimi. I think we are the same height but I was cheating with heals.
(Meaning, we are both on the "un-tall" side.) Mimi is a very gifted teacher! If you ever get a chance to take one of her classes, I most highly reccommend it!

I wanted to show you the necklace I am wearing in this photo....look familiar? Yes, I have posted about this in the past. It is completely continuously tatted with one unbroken length of hand dyed thread.
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This was tatted in YarnPlayer's "TigerEye" and I had a great time bragging on Marilee at the convention....Yes I did!
There is a lot of interest in how I do this kind of tatting and I started to talk about the technique with some of the tatting wizards who came to Shuttlebirds and I learned something new about myself. I'm not so great a teacher! Sad but true. I think it's because I learn visually so I would have to teach visually, hence the reason why I haven't been able to write this down and share it with you all sooner. BUT, one of my first priorities when I get settled after this move is to make a little video to show you how this is done....VISUALLY and for those who learn best from books, perhaps one of you other wizards can help me write it down....eh?

And finally, a little side note about the shop! I will close my Etsy shop Thursday night. Everything will ship on Friday. It will re-open as soon as I get internet connection once I am in Korea. I have no idea how long this will be. Hopefully only a few days....I guess we'll have to see!

5 comments:

Grizzly Mountain Arts said...

Wow! That antique tatted parasol is amazing! Can you imagine doing that with the lack of eyeglasses that they must have had back then? I love your tatted necklace! Many wishes for a smooth move to Korea. It's so great that you know how long you'll be there. We moved at the whim of Uncle Sam for nearly 30 years, so I understand how hard this is. I hope you have loads of fun during your stay in Korea :)

Tatskool said...

I wonder how many of us would have stuck with tatting done in the old way, I don't think I would.

You must be getting so excited, we are all excited for you and hoping you get your internet connection real soon.

Marilee Rockley said...

Wishing you smooth sailing, the wind always at your back, and all those other good blessings! Thanks for talking me up at the convention, Sherry! I wish I could have been there.
I'll bet you will have great adventures and teach loads of people to tat during your stay in South Korea.

Unknown said...

Thank you for that close up of the old picot joins. I found a yoke at an antique stoe that has the picots joined tied together like that. I'll have to do a post. Well, I wish I could get a couple more shuttles at your shop kiddo. So many beautiful functional works of art. Hope you have a safe trip and once again I'm glad you had fun at shuttle birds. Mimi seems like a nice person.

Gina said...

I find a lot of vintage (and sometimes not vintage) tatting is done like that. In recent years I've come to know some tatters who learned many years ago, did not know how to hide ends, and so they just knotted like that - until they met me or the internet and learned thar's a new way of doin' things now!
Would have loved to have seen the parasol. Found one in a store in TX once being used as decor. I was afraid it would fall apart if I handled it!

:-) Gina