Class pictures

In case you haven’t noticed, I love it when tatters learn new tricks! Here are pictures of the pattern we looked at last weekend:

Inset tatted by Natalie Rogers

Inset tatted by Joyce Martin

 Just 3 more days left in the auction. I do hope people are bidding. I’m sure some of the artists are confident their pieces will sell for a tidy sum. Me, I just hope someone enjoys my piece for many, many years to come.

Ornamentation tatted art featured

Posted Monday 7-27 by the Carmel Bach Festival on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bachfestival/

Ornamentation by Melanie Cervi

(In case you cannot get Facebook to show the post, here’s what they said)

”A potpourri from our art auction is offered for your review today. Don’t miss these small gems that will enliven your home if you are the winning bidder.

Tatting is handwork whose knots produce lace—a Victorian-era handcraft creatively used to make a Christmas ornament by Melanie Cervi. Does your Christmas tree call out for this unique addition?”

Bidding is done by sealed bid through the website here:https://bachfestival.org/product/melanie-cervi/

Auction will in Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020. Art will be mailed to the winning bidder for a flat fee of US$15.00.

Thank you all for your support.

Ongoing

The tatting classes offered through the Lace Museum in Sunnyvale. A half dozen students, some using needle and some using shuttle (one student is learning both!) are exploring lace tatted with wonderful comradery and support for each other. This weekend’s class expoloring the tatted edging and inset of a mat in the Museum’s collection will be more knotting fun! Here’s the link with more information: https://www.thelacemuseum.org/workshops.html

Inset from mat in the Museum collection

The Art of Music raffle supporting Carmel Bach Festival. My piece, Ornamentation, is included. To view the many works available, visit the website here: https://bachfestival.org/

Ornamentation

Thank you all for supporting music, lace, tatting and my own humble efforts.

Art of Music Raffle

I’m adding to a common refrain today: support artists and musicians who have not been able to earn money.

Each July, in Carmel California, musicians gather to create a special Festival centered on the music of JS Bach. Heaven for this organist. Brigadoon for many of the fabulous musicians arriving from all over the world. The quality of vocal music and caliber of musicianship is so high it often takes my breath away. And I’ve heard some of the best in my time.

To help fund this yearly event, the community gets creative. Artists join in. There is an application process and the pieces are donated, with most of the artists living here really enjoying participating. It’s definitely fun to see what is inspired by the music we hear! Previously, the art was hung in the gallery at the main performance space: Sunset Center. This year, the show is presented via the main website: bachfestival.org

Above is my humble piece. I knew it would be difficult to photograph well. I like how the photographer captured the colors. The short description: I tatted 4 elements to be displayed on an ovoid ornament. The swirls of color represent the musicians and the audience. The rest is inspired by the Sunset Center hall: the gray by the lighting structure, the red by the seats and the beige by the marvelous stone floor of the lobby. I chose not to fill the ornament as I look forward to a future when we will gather together again to celebrate music and art and Carmel and….

Please consider bidding on any of the artwork, especially Ornamentation. Please support the musicians and artists as much as you are able. Please continue to celebrate Bach. There are videos offered daily on the Festival website to keep everyone in touch and inspire audiences and musicians.

Preparation is important

I love to teach. Full disclosure, I have little patience for Administrators who tell me how to teach. I get that’s their job, but me thinks they’ve not taught enough. So, I do not teach in a formal school situation often. Experiences when I’m teaching where people don’t “have to” learn are usually my shining moments. Recently, a teacher aide in a more formal situation wondered aloud how I prepare for students I don’t know and have no objective.

Three points: Teach the skill, present the possibilities, and affirm the successes achieved.

Part of that preparation is not being perfect. When I demonstrate how to tat, I talk about several different ways to make the DS. I’ll even use thread or tools that I don’t like to use. I talk about what is logical and readily available. Often, that means I fail to make pretty lace. Not perfect. But, students seem to gain courage from that. They overcome frustration faster and usually succeed in making lace with less stress.

Part of that preparation is samples with mistakes. I usually show pieces I made when learning. One isn’t even finished. The discussion of what is wrong with it usually gets students past seeing their own mistakes to creating more lace. I’ll remind myself aloud that I am my own worst critic. I have a heart I made that is missing a part of the pattern. One “shoulder” is too flat. These make good samples.

Here’s my sample for the upcoming Lace Museum classes:

There are quite a few mistakes in it. It’s not finished. It’ll do just fine. I’m looking forward to affirming the students having success.

Registration is open!

The Lace Museum of Sunnyvale is offering classes next week. They are scheduled to coordinate with

UnCon 2020 of IOLI.

I will be teaching a beginning tatting series on 7-22 through 7-24 (Wed, Thurs and Fri) from 9 AM – 11 AM Pacific time (4 PM – 6 PM GMT). We will cover both needle and shuttle techniques. This is a real bargain for $35. Register on the Museum Shopify page here .

If you have mastered the basics, consider joining us the following weekend Sat 7-25 & Sun 7-26 from 9 AM – Noon Pacific time (4 PM – 7 PM GMT). We will be recreating a portion of the pretty mat (below) in the collection at the Museum. The inset works nicely as a coaster or ornament. The borders of the mat consist of repeating a portion of the inset worked with a lovely edging on both sides. We will be exploring several different paths to execution, designing with color, and adding embellishments. Come join us for a lively discussion and tat up a surprise. Offered also at $35 for the two morning sessions. Register here

I look forward to greeting IOLI members attending the UnCon sessions. Treat yourself to a morning of tatting fun sponsored by the Lace Museum of Sunnyvale!

Just a quick peek

This is my interpretation of the inset on the mat in the Lace Museum collection.

 

We will focus on this motif as a part of the classes offered in a couple of weeks. Registration link will be live next week. Class size is typically limited, but it will be virtual, so who knows how many we can host for tatting fun!

July in the Pandemic Age

Well, our County is back on hold. For 3 weeks we’ll be hunkering down again. I am not surprised in the least. Our little corner of Paradise is a frequent R&R spot. People in relax mode aren’t as careful as they are at home. And when the wind kicks up every afternoon, it’s hard to remember masks do help. Anyway, I’ll be focusing on remote teaching, designing new patterns, and promoting tatting when and where I can.

Here’s the commercial for today:

The Lace Museum is putting together more on line classes. My tatting class will be part of the excellent line up of all things lace. I’ll be focusing on basic skills, skills needed for pattern such as the vintage mat in the Museum collection, and where to use all the tatted treasures.

Our Tatting Tuesday Study Group is meeting each week. We are a low stress group. You bring your projects in progress, we celebrate the successes, and support the quest for solutions. The first visit is free, membership in the Carmel Crafts Guild allows for regular attendance. We meet in the afternoon. Come when you can, leave when you must. For information, inquire on the Guild website, or leave a comment (which will remain private).

The Art of Music auction to support Carmel Bach Festival will be starting soon. There will be links available soon to view the pieces up for raffle, buy tickets, and dream of how the art will look wherever you enjoy Bach!

Back to the regular schedule of tatting adventures!

Of vintage and new

Remember this intriguing mat from the Lace Museum collection?

Mat with tatting from the
Lace Museum in Sunnyvale

 My interest was pricked not just by the use of lace with a cloth mat, but by the question of, “could this be tatted by a machine?” Since Santa Clara County has ordered all museums closed, I was not able to examine it in person. The photographs shared were very well done and gave me quite a bit to go on. After hours of searching online, thank you Google Scholar, I concluded that there were patents applied and granted for tatting machines. There is excellent research work out there. More should be done.

I kept going back to the mat. From the photograph, it looked like it was tatted with only chains, no rings. How would I choose to tat it? I sent emails, studied the photo, made notes, picked up my shuttles and created a sample. The staff at the Lace Museum in Sunnyvale is interested in offering a class to recreate this piece. So, I’ve been creating the written pattern with diagrams, tatting samples, and pulling together a kit list for them. Target date is in July. Anyone interested in joining the fun?