Tatting with beads

Today we learned how to tat with beads. And as usual my girls caught on very quickly! I think they are all some kind of tatting geniuses. LOL! At least they have learned tatting much faster than I ever did!

Kyoung-mi has surprised me with her designing/adapting skills. She is very creative!

She even tatted one of my butterflies from my tatting book...and mind you this is not a beginner pattern!

Hye-soon tatted this gorgeous bookmark from Mary Konior's "Black Magic" page 10 in Tatting with Visual Patterns..... And doesn't it look pretty in "Tropicana" HDT????

Jinju tatted this with "Middle Earth" hand dyed silk. It is sooo much lovelier in person.

Oh, by the way, Jinju translates to "Pearl", which is also the name of her little shop! In case I never mentioned it, all my girls are little shop owners.
And finally an update on my finger. You can see that it is well on its way to healing and it doesn't hurt as much anymore...but there is a way to go before I see a nail again.

Oh...and P.S.S.
I pretty much slept for the last five days. I tried to tat but made too many mistakes. Tatting with a fever is not a good plan! Today I feel much better and going to 4 O'clock Rock was the first time I have been out since last Thurs. It was nice to hang out with my happy friends! I gotta say though that I am pretty tired still and they could see it....they patted me on the shoulder and said, "Teacher, it is o.k. if you want to go home early."
They are so sweet!

Still Rock'n

I haven't blogged about our tatting group for the last two weeks but we have still been busy. I just forgot to bring my camera the last couple of times...but I brought it today! Last week I bought a giant American pizza from the base and brought it to the group to share. American pizza and Korean pizza are two different animals....so I thought I'd let them try "REAL" pizza LOL!
I am such a proud big sister! Kyoung-mi tatted these lovely gifts for a Christmas party....and do you recognize the HDT??? I think these guys are addicted now too ....(insert evil laugh)!

Hye-Soon and Kyoung-mi completed Ruth Perry's Celtic snowflakes. Next week we will go on to beads, then block tatting, then maybe clunies....ah...the fun never ends! If you click on their names you will be taken to their blogs....they are in Korean but you can still see their beautiful tatting!

Look at this beautiful Christmas card Kyoung-mi has made for her most special friends! She is playing shy in the photos....but she isn't shy...so don't be fooled.

I am so proud of them! Jinju was there too but was a little late and missed the photos. They are all really awesome students and friends!

Also, we may be getting another tatting student soon and she is an American......more on that later.

Tatting Eye Candy Galore!

Look what I was gifted with by Kyoung-mi! Oh what a lovely surprise! She is already mixing tatting with pottery. It's so wonderful to see! I love it!

I brought chips and salsa to class today. The girls have never tried it before. I was worried that it wouldn't suit their taste buds but they loved it. At first I thought they were just trying to be nice, but then after they ate a whole bag of chips and a whole tub of salsa I realized they really do like it! Yay for new experiences! .....oh and it isn't the best idea to tat and eat salsa at the same time....lesson learned.

Today we learned how to "Tat over Tails" and how to "Hide Ends". These girls are starting out right!

A special thank you to Nancy Tracy for generously sharing patterns on her website. Homework this week is one of her snowflake patterns as you can see by the picture.

We also talked a little about tatting culture and how important it is to respect one another's patterns and to always give credit to the author.

Kyoung-mi surprised me with a design of her own. She really likes fish and uses them as a theme in her pottery. What do you think of her little tatted fish?.. Not bad for a newbie eh?

...and not to be outshone, Hye-Soon made a little butterfly! Also, Hye-Soon now has a tatting student of her own. Isn't that great?

Now on to the Hand Dyed Tatting Thread aka "HDT".


This is "Country Christmas": A custom hand-dyed thread by Diane. I hope you like it Diane....it's on the way!

Here we have "OLD SAINT NICK"; my first solid batch of hand dyed tatting thread. It's that really great Norman Rockwell Santa red of the good ol' days.


"ICICLE" ....brrrr get out the hot chocolate; a new batch is ready, this time with some silk included. Hmmmm, I can just picture some lovely tatted snowflakes with "ICICLE" silk.
Isn't the inspiration photo gorgeous? Check out photographer Jack Brauer's website; he is a phenomenal artist.



"POINSETTIA": This is an all silk batch. It is very Christmassy and shiny. In hubby's words, "It POPS!".

And lastly....but certainly not least, we have a new batch of "KAREN'S HALO"; very angelic and perfect for Christmas.

The blessings are still flowing....

I came home to a wonderful package from Laura's Tatting Muse. Thank you so much Lala!
I now have a "student" bag that holds all these wonderful donated supplies. I expect to use them all...even if I have to start classes the next place we move to!

4 o'clock ROCK....still Rock'n

Since I am in China right now and we didn't want to miss our Monday tatting meeting, we decided to hold it last Thursday (a few days early). I won't get to see the girls for 10 days, so this way, instead of missing two meetings we only have to miss one.
I can't believe what fast learners my haksangs (students) are. They call me sonsangnim (teacher).
I decided to start teaching them with diagrams straight off so that they will be able to interpret modern tatting patterns with ease.
Check this out:

Hyesoon's work continues to be immaculate. Notice the tatting on her necklace? That was her previous homework assignment.
Even though it is only Jinju's 2nd day she is already catching up to the other girls.
Look how beautiful Kyoung-mi looks.

They were very happy when I pulled out the lovely array of threads from YarnPlayer. They wanted to pay for it so I thought to myself, "Hmmm I could definitely use some Won." But I didn't charge them Ha ha! Instead I sent them home with fresh spools of thread, a shuttle of their choice, diagram, and lots of homework. Thanks again Marilee!

I expect to see at least of couple yards of trim when I get back...hee hee!

Kyoung-mi took this picture and it makes me laugh.

4 o'clock ROCK

I asked the girls what they wanted to call our tatting meetings and "4 O'CLOCK ROCK" is what they came up with! We meet at 4pm every Monday and we "rock out" while we learn to tat. Cute huh??
As for what we decided to call tatting in Korea.....wait for it.....it's coming.... TATTING!! LOL!
Here is Kyoung-Mi helping our newcomer JinJu. It took some convincing to get JinJu to try it but I think she left the meeting very satisfied with her accomplishment.


All these girls are fast learners and I am very proud of each of them. I send them home with homework and they actually do it. So far HyeSoon is my star pupil, she just really gets it.
Today's lesson was joins but she caught on so quickly we jumped to chains and look what she did!


I am so glad we started these lessons because they are the highlight of my time here in Korea. It gives me a chance to make new friends and they are teaching me some Hangul in the meantime....but I must say they are better students than I am.