On a designing kick

I got some more copper in so I will be making a few new copper shuttles soon. Here is my newest design. Who doesn't love butterflies?

New Shuttle Design

Well, now that silver prices are through the roof I have to carefully plan each and every silver shuttle that I make. What do you think of this design? I will practice it in copper first.
It used to cost me in materials alone $70 to make each shuttle, for that same shuttle it will now cost me $112 and of course that doesn't include time, firing costs, or the investment I made in tools and equipment. So this is not a money making enterprise for me at all. My ultimate goal is to make the world's most beautiful tatting shuttle that ever was and ever will be! Now, whether or not I accomplish this goal remains to be seen, and of course beauty is subjective, but if I aim high the shuttles I make along the way should be pretty decent. It may take my entire life and I may never "get there" but the journey should be fun!
I am spurred on by my love of tatting and the encouragement of my beloved tatting family.
...and of course I will always keep you posted on my progress.

Current silver shuttles for sale.

Tatting: Designing Evolution

If you guessed that my new design was an edging then you guessed right.
I decided to share my designing evolution with you...the whole thing...the good, bad and the ugly.
I usually start out with a sketch. And here you will see how completely off my rocker I really am; Yes, I started out the design with size 100 thread, then moved to size 80 then finally size 20. Yes I am daft! Don't even ask.

I spent a lot of time making sure that it lies flat as it is being tatted and doesn't curve, and makes a 90 degree angle at the corner. Anyway, I have been working on it for days and I am very close to finishing it. I want to change up the corner treatment a little bit and then I'll write up the pattern.
It is an intermediate two shuttle pattern that uses SCMR's.


Here it is in my Size 20 "Rainbow Sherbert" hand dyed tatting thread.

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.