Structured Radomness

O.k. so this isn't the most original doily design, but this one does demonstrate what I call "structured randomness" in it's design. I've been playing around with this concept for awhile. And while I am not a "doily person", the doily lends itself perfectly to this idea. Coming from a traditional art background I am very drawn to free flow creation. Tatting is not exactly a free flow art form and doilies in particular are very structured and geometrical.
So I've been trying to combine both free flow and structure together to ultimately create an harmonious result. I don't know if I have achieved that goal in this piece but it is an idea that I am interested in at the moment and will work on until I am satisfied.
I realize that we all have different aesthetics, and many of us like the predictable repeated geometric qualities of traditional tatting design. Then there are those of us who like to step out of our comfort zone and get a little wild and crazy with the unexpected. Personally I like both the traditional and the unexpected aspects of design, so voila, by working on combining both we shall see where this journey ultimately ends.
Please feel free to weigh in with your thoughts and preferences.


MORE UPDATES
It looks like my HDT "SUMMER POND" made it into a treasury by the same name.

It also looks like I missed a big milestone for this blog. I finally reached 100,000 unique visitors. I always like to celebrate these things but unique life circumstances have taken precedence and I guess I'll have to wait for the next 500,000 visitors milestone to celebrate.

Picadilly:
Things are holding steady. My cervix is no better or worse than the week before. ..and hopefully that will remain true after my doc visit today. I am still on bed rest.
This baby is proving to be a real survivor! I think she is stronger than I am.
The constant migraines are keeping me away from the computer so I do what I can in the short moments that I can actually look at the computer monitor.
I go in for my weekly ultra sound today. I am hoping upon hope that I don't get admitted to the hospital again. That has been the pattern: Regular check-up turns into hospital admission.
The good news is that I am 6 and 1/2 months pregnant today and I have gained a total of 5 pounds so far. Whoo hoo! I have been eating hamburgers, pizza, brownies, cookies and ice-cream....all things that are normally NOT a part of my diet but I am desperately trying to put on some pounds....so the sacrifices I must make...LOL!

That's it for now. Every day is precarious. As I have stated before, I do WHAT I can, WHEN I can.

First draft of "Bleeding Heart" tatting design.

I have some ideas for improvement, but this is what I've come up with so far. Since I am still living out of a suitcase most of my tatting supplies are packed away. I am annoyed that I cannot find everything I need.
It is a joy to be tatting and designing again...I've got lot's of other design ideas too but I am finding myself short on time. My life is super crazy right now. I really miss hubby; it's been 6 weeks apart now and still no word on when he gets to come home.
And my Internet connection is RUBBISH so I am not able to accomplish many of the things I would like. Even with all this I am still so thankful and I am smiling everyday!

"Tree Beard" tatted up

I am working on a new tatting design for a very special project (which shall remain secret for awhile)....and NO it's not an edging or a bookmark. My apologies up front if this resembles someone else's design, if so let me know so that I can give credit where it's due.
This is tatted in Size 80 "Tree Beard" HDT. It's the first time I've tatted this colorway and I LOVE it! So if you were wondering what it looks like tatted up....VOILA!

Name this Doily TATTING CONTEST

After 5 months of working on this design. I have finally finished what may be the only doily I ever design. I didn't just sit and tat this one out, it was very carefully planned and executed. Tatted and re-tatted and re-tatted..etc.
It is a pattern that will delight advanced tatters. There are several "themes" that are carried throughout the design.
It is continuously tatted in two rounds. The inner round using just one 50 yrd skein of size 20 hand dyed tatting thread. With the second round it measures 11" in diameter.
It includes some interesting "picot fun", the "dimpled yorkie", block tatting, split rings, and mock picots. Tatted in the Front/Back side method.
**No split chains ...neener neener*

I have documented the process of making this doily and now I am putting together the pattern. I am in the process of re-tatting it one more time...this time in silk...just for good measure.

Now to the contest:
I cannot for the life of me think of a good name for this design. SOOOOO I thought it would be fun to have a little naming contest. Eternal Glory will be bestowed upon the winner as well as a complimentary copy of the pattern.

THE RULES:

1.) Anyone can enter, but be forewarned, this is a pattern for experienced tatters.

2.) You may submit up to three entries per person.

3.) Entries must NOT be posted in the comment section but rather, email them to me with "Doily Contest" in the subject line.

4.) Entries will be accepted until midnight July 13th. (That would be Pyeongtaek time).

5.) I will choose my favorite entry and announce the winner on July 14th.

Good luck to all!


Here's a bonus post:

This is my cousin's baby, "Miss Chloe" growling at the camera.
Chloe can just go right ahead and call me "Auntie". ...uh huhh! I don't lightly claim nieces and nephews so this is a major compliment.
I have not had the opportunity to meet her in person yet...but I can attest to the fact that her big brother is a character too and every bit as cute as she is. It looks like she is turning out to be quite the little tomboy which automatically endears her to my heart. Can't wait to meet you Chloe!

So much TATTING my head is going to explode!

First of all here is the finished doily in size 80 hand dyed tatting thread "Baby Shower". Nope, I didn't make baby booties this time....those are for a later date. Does your thread sometimes chant to you, "Tat me! Tat me! Tat me!" ?!?!?
Well, mine does. This thread wouldn't be quiet until I picked it up and just started tatting away. I don't design or even tat doilies all that much, but this was in my head and needed to be freed.
This doily design is 100% continuously tatted. I LOVE that it is tatted with one continuous unbroken string! Whoo hoo! I think this is a perfect design specifically for Hand Dyed Thread. I want to tweak the design just a bit and then I'll work on diagramming it.

Secondly, ....and this is exciting!
An excerpt from my Custom Hand Dyed Thread listing:
"Is there a color combo that you've been wanting but haven't been able to find?
Send me your color palette, and/or your own inspiration photo and and I will make you your own hand dyed thread. Just tell me what you want and be as specific as you can. You can even name your own thread!".....to learn more click here.

And finally, I dyed a new batch of "FUCHSIA" and it is lovely.

Tatting floating leaves

I have had so many new tatting designs floating around in my head and the last thing I should be doing right now is tatting, but I am afraid they will float away if I don't capture them now. I desperately need to get back to work in my studio, my hubby is starting to get irritated with me.
Anyhow, I have been working around the clock and I am hoping the book will be finished by the end of next week. It's unbelievable how many unforseen hurdles I have encountered in trying to get my ideas to materialize. I am having nightmares about margins. LOL!

Designing Methods

O.k, here is a design that went wrong, and I don't think I can salvage it. It's completely due to poor planning on my part. But I thought I would share it anyway to let you all know that creating new patterns isn't all that easy. I also wanted to share this interesting thread that I won as a prize at the Shuttlebirds convention. It is a very large thread size 10 or larger and it reminds me of tie dye.

Anyway, today I thought I would share a little about the way that I design. I try to get my inspiration from non-tatting items, like designs and patterns in nature or architecture. For example I have created several butterfly patterns; for those I checked out a bunch of books from the library on butterflies and I studied them in detail. In fact when I am designing I try to avoid other tatting and tatting patterns and books altogether so that I don't inadvertantly copy someone else's work. I usually draw out the design that is floating around in my head and then I spend a lot of time "perfecting" it. I take into account the ease of the pattern because personally I like straightforward patterns that aren't too fussy and complicated. Making the pattern easy to tat is probably the most challenging and time consuming part of designing.
Anyhow, I have a lot more flubs than successes but I learn from each one and sometimes a "flub" can turn into a happy accident.

On another note, I am very sad today because I checked over our calendar and realized that I just cannot make the Palmetto Tatting convention. I was so looking forward to meeting a lot of you in person. I was especially looking forward to meeting Jane and Mark who will be teaching, but alas I will have to wait for another opportunity to arise.

5 shuttle tatting

Are you sick of grapes yet? Just when I thought I was done with this edging design that has been plaguing me for days I was struck by an intriguing idea. At first I thought I was crazy to even consider such a thing but uncontrollable forces urged me foward.
This was my inpiration:

It is a photo of my kitchen where I have these really cool alternating grape lights. So my goal was to make alternating grape colors on the edging design without a lot of fuss. I wanted it to be a continuous tat.
Voila! After much deliberation and a little frustration I am now enjoying the fruits of my labor....Pun intended!
This blog post is my 50th post. Whoo hoo! This is a pretty big deal considering how ADD I am.
And now that I know I can successfully tat with 5 shuttles at a time I have tons of other design ideas rolling around in my head.

Goodness Grapecious!!

Two posts in one day and my very first edging design! When I get fixated on an idea I can't let it go until I have a satisfactory conclusion. This idea was rolling around in my head for nearly four days. I am very pleased with this edging. I generally don't go in for edgings and doily's and such.
But this is a design I can't wait to use in my own kitchen (which happens to be, what I like to call, my "Italian Bistro").
I am going to have a bugger of a time writing this pattern as I don't know the term (or even if there is one) for the method I used, and I certainly don't know how to transcribe it. Perhaps one of you tatting guru's out there can assist me.
Now that this is done I can get back to doing some pottery.

Necessity is the mother of invention

More 3 shuttle tatting:
So I really wanted to figure out how I could continue this motif indefinately into an edging with no cuts. I mulled over it for an entire day and a half and came up with this. Of course I had to make it extra hard on myself by using size 80 thread. This motif is tiny. I am re-working it today with size 20 and tweaking the design here and there. This is a tricky little thing...mind you I am not claiming that I invented a new method or anything, I am sure someone knows what the heck I am doing....but I sure don't know what to call it.
More to come later.

A Bunch of Grapes

It's been really HOT for about a week and the heat is making me hungry for cool fruits. So I decided to tat me up a bunch of grapes. I think I will play around with this design a bit more. Don't they look tasty?
***You've just had a small glimpse into the weird way my mind works.***

Goof'n around with three shuttle tatting.

Here is a little motif I came up with while I was away from home this past weekend.
It is tatted with size 80 thread and I used three shuttles. With all my new designs lately I have been trying to tat continuously with not cuts or interruptions. Georgia if you are reading this, you would be proud.
I'm not 100% pleased with it but I do think it is a starting point for something much more interesting. I am going to keep playing around with it.

Applying what I learned

I finished this butterfly last night. I used all the techniques I learned over the weekend in this design with the exception of the split chain. Each wing was tatted with no interruptions. It may look simple but it is in fact the most technical piece of lace I have ever designed. Although not perfected my cluny leaves are getting better. You haven't lived until you've had to undo a cluny.
I forgot to add in my earlier post that I literally brought a shoe box full of ceramic shuttles to the convention (five months worth of work fit in a shoe box). I did not go to the convention primarily to sell my shuttles but I did sell just enough to break even on the trip. That was a real blessing.