Still preparing

 I’ll be turning my attention to the piece I’ll donate to the Carmel Bach Festival next. The wonderful volunteers will be gathering the art at the end of this week. For me, that means labeling (somehow) my piece of lace and writing (another) Artist Statement. This is always a humbling experience for me. The binder where these papers will be gathered is always available. Sometimes I see people looking through it. So, I try to write something that introduces the piece and explains my design and a bit of the process. Yes, I will be asking my favorite proofreader to look it over before I hit print!

Some of you have shown interest in the grid templates I use. My favorite 3-D print shop has more options available now. Check it out!

Preparation is the key

 Tatters now this to be a truth. If you don’t prepare your shuttles well, you end up with kinks and twists and ugly DS. If you don’t prepare where to hide ends, you end up with bulges and extra thread and maybe even glue blobs. If you don’t prepare the beads on the thread around your hand, you end up without beads on the picots of your ring. Preparation is important.

I spend some time last week preparing to loan items for a show in a local municipal gallery. It’s tedious labeling your lace. It takes time to fill out forms and assign value and give credit where credit is due. Oh, and the Artist Statement. Yeah. It all takes thought and time. Don’t get me wrong. It’s worth it. 100%. I hope we tempt other people to investigate tatting with our local group. Or at least watch a video or two.

This week I’m preparing my donation for the Art of Music. Just a few more elements, hide ends, block, photograph, label and document, and then take that deep breath and hand it over to the wonderful volunteers. (I found out last month that my blog is read by some of them. Gulp! Thank you!!) I hope it helps to raise lots of money!

How to join .......

 

Even though I spent some time figuring out hiding ends in TDS, I’m still not sure how this is going to turn out. Time to take a deep breath, pick up the shuttles and figure it out.

Ever have one of those days?

 The kind that whooshes by in a flurry of not-important activity? Yeah….the last few days were like that for me.

I played the third Sunday in a row. My hands and wrists are telling me. So, I haven’t been tatting a lot. Rest has helped. I loaded the beads for my final round of BWV 572. Now to pick up the shuttles and put the ideas into lace. I have until the end of next week. Best get cracking!

I think this will work

 Have I used that as a title for a post? I probably have.

This is one of my distraction designs that waylaid me earlier. I want to use it as an outer round for BWV 572. This section of the piece is sparkly. Most of the beads are loaded before tatting, so it should work up quickly.

I think it will work.

 

I’m in that exhilarating and sometimes frustrating stage of designing. I can’t keep my mind on tatting the pattern (read: I make a few mistakes) because my mind is making up new patterns. If you’re picturing shuttles laying around with a few rings and chains attached, but nothing that looks like a project, you’re not far off. I would call myself distracted.

I promise to finish the Art of Music submission. I promise to keep working on the shawl. I promise to keep working on Wiosna 2025. But, if I find I have a bit of time, I’ll be dragging out my templates to help me get the designs to lay flat more quickly.

Finding inspiration

 If you have read up on my tatting, you know I look to music compositions for inspiration when creating my pieces of lace. With Spring bursting into our lives, I also enjoy looking at nature for design inspiration. While working in the yard, I marvel at how a rose bud opens up to reveal a treat for bees.

While walking in the woods, I see wonderful snowflake designs in fern fronds.

A bouquet of Sweat peas fills the room with scent and fills the eyes with overlapping curves.

I’ll need a fair amount of discipline soon. I’m almost done with BWV 572. I have a list of design possibilities. Sticking to the grand plan and not getting distracted will be important!

Coming along

 

I’m working carefully on this round. The technique is a bit fiddly, but very effective for this point in the pattern.