I stole this old post from my Yahoo blog (private) that I wrote at the time I taught myself to tat. The entry is dated May 22, 06.
"Monday last week I decided I wanted to learn the art of "tatting". I spent much of the day roaming websites trying to understand just what they were doing with that thread. By Monday night I had a basic understanding and had completed a small motif. By the early hours of Thursday morning I had completed the dark blue seahorse. I stayed up way past my point of tired just to finish it! I was so determined!! At the time I didn't have the correct tool and was using wedges of cardboard to keep the thread in line. Luckily Thursday saw me heading to Kalgoorlie for a dental appt so while there I bought a couple of shuttles and some new thread, just cos! (I have a lot of thread from my crochet *lol*).
Yesterday (Sunday) I completed a the second seahorse (teal) in a much shorter time frame. My better understanding of the task at hand and the use of the appropriate tool made the job so much more rewarding. It didn't feel so frustrating everytime the thread snagged, cos it wasn't snagging! Plus the hook on the end of the tool (shuttle) was so much easier than trying to juggle 2 separate threads and a crochet hook all at once!! :D
Mum, nanna and the like keep asking "what are you going to do with them" and I must glow like those little Fire-Dudes in the movie the Labyrinth who swap their heads and facial features endlessly. Soooo many posibilities!! Appliques on clothes, motifs for linen/card making/scrapbooking, starch them and hang as ornaments/mobiles, smaller items can be jewellry and of course patterns I am yet to attempt are the more traditional doileys and lace edges. Well, I am proud of me today even though the little heart looks completely wrong! I misjudged the amount of thread needed and struggled to finish it.
PS. Ash, the lil lavandar flowers were just for you! (now I am even spelling it like you, gosh!!) :D :D"
Ash is a very good friend of mine in the USA. We met through Neopets.com and it's nice offering support and advice to a very mature teen. Sometimes I worry she should be getting help closer to home, but I'm just glad she is getting the RIGHT advice, as opposed to all the things kids tell each other and believe it all to be true. Anyway, Ash's fave colour is Lavendar, which she spells lavandar just cos she can!
Tatting was rather difficult to grasp by not seeing someone do it. By reading words, seeing pictures and a video image (so small!!) online I managed to work it out, but it took a while. Ok, so it took a day! I'm just lucky I grasp things fast. If I hadn't seen the video I'd still be struggling. It was seeing that they pulled the thread with the opposite hand that I got the whole "click/snap" thing. I really love the results of tatting and as frustrating as I find not being able to frog it, I am really addicted :D
This is an engaement card I created for a school friend of my sister. The heart pattern was found online somehwere then it is basicaly cardstock, ribbons, silk flowers, a brad/split pin and a metal photo corner. I found a really fitting quote to put inside and voila! I'm really pleased with this, although gluing the heart to the cardstock posed a bit of a problem *hehe*
"Monday last week I decided I wanted to learn the art of "tatting". I spent much of the day roaming websites trying to understand just what they were doing with that thread. By Monday night I had a basic understanding and had completed a small motif. By the early hours of Thursday morning I had completed the dark blue seahorse. I stayed up way past my point of tired just to finish it! I was so determined!! At the time I didn't have the correct tool and was using wedges of cardboard to keep the thread in line. Luckily Thursday saw me heading to Kalgoorlie for a dental appt so while there I bought a couple of shuttles and some new thread, just cos! (I have a lot of thread from my crochet *lol*).
Yesterday (Sunday) I completed a the second seahorse (teal) in a much shorter time frame. My better understanding of the task at hand and the use of the appropriate tool made the job so much more rewarding. It didn't feel so frustrating everytime the thread snagged, cos it wasn't snagging! Plus the hook on the end of the tool (shuttle) was so much easier than trying to juggle 2 separate threads and a crochet hook all at once!! :D
Mum, nanna and the like keep asking "what are you going to do with them" and I must glow like those little Fire-Dudes in the movie the Labyrinth who swap their heads and facial features endlessly. Soooo many posibilities!! Appliques on clothes, motifs for linen/card making/scrapbooking, starch them and hang as ornaments/mobiles, smaller items can be jewellry and of course patterns I am yet to attempt are the more traditional doileys and lace edges. Well, I am proud of me today even though the little heart looks completely wrong! I misjudged the amount of thread needed and struggled to finish it.
PS. Ash, the lil lavandar flowers were just for you! (now I am even spelling it like you, gosh!!) :D :D"
Ash is a very good friend of mine in the USA. We met through Neopets.com and it's nice offering support and advice to a very mature teen. Sometimes I worry she should be getting help closer to home, but I'm just glad she is getting the RIGHT advice, as opposed to all the things kids tell each other and believe it all to be true. Anyway, Ash's fave colour is Lavendar, which she spells lavandar just cos she can!
Tatting was rather difficult to grasp by not seeing someone do it. By reading words, seeing pictures and a video image (so small!!) online I managed to work it out, but it took a while. Ok, so it took a day! I'm just lucky I grasp things fast. If I hadn't seen the video I'd still be struggling. It was seeing that they pulled the thread with the opposite hand that I got the whole "click/snap" thing. I really love the results of tatting and as frustrating as I find not being able to frog it, I am really addicted :D
This is an engaement card I created for a school friend of my sister. The heart pattern was found online somehwere then it is basicaly cardstock, ribbons, silk flowers, a brad/split pin and a metal photo corner. I found a really fitting quote to put inside and voila! I'm really pleased with this, although gluing the heart to the cardstock posed a bit of a problem *hehe*
2 comments:
Hey Shell...saw your post over at the Bookmark Exhange. I'll put you on my Bloglines so I remember to visit often.
Good for you for learning to tat online. That is not an easy feat. Love the card idea. I do handmade cards, too, with my tatting.
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