Tatting Tool found at the Iowa State Fair

These are the 'Tatting Tools' that I found at the Iowa State Fair last weekend.   It was in one of those vendors with all the odds & ends tools.  They were marked 'Pins'.  I paid $1 a piece for them. 
They are now 'Thread Holders'.

Houndstooth Tesselation Design Tatted

This is my Split Ring Tatting interpretation of Houndstooth Pattern.

 

It is also an example of True Tesselation in that tatted this way it forms a 'fabric'.

 

There are picots on the edge of this piece.  I was planning to tat a backside for it and make it into a pouch.

This pattern will be included in my upcoming book:  MORE Fun with Split Ring Tatting

Tesselation example from SRT Book #2--soon to be published

As explained in my last post, true Tesselation is a pattern that has no gaps or overlaps.

My Lace-Tesselation patterns do have gaps to create 'negative space' which creates 'lace'.

This following example is my HOUNDSTOOTH design.....the design that started all my interest in pattern/repetition/tesselation.

The BASIC DESIGN ELEMENT is this:

A TRUE TESSELATION Pattern would look like this:

 

 

My LACE-TESSELATION Pattern looks like this:

 

 

I can also manipulate the Basic Design Element to form other patterns such as:

 

 

All these patterns and more are featured in my upcoming book:  MORE Fun with Split Ring Tatting

 

MORE Fun with SRT--Book #2 Themes

Just wanted to inform about my new book coming out yet in 2013. 

This new book will not have all the 'introduction to Split Ring Tatting Technique' that Book One did.

It will have a chapter on how to create Split Rings and Take-Off-Rings by way of Needle Tatting Technique.

The book actually has a couple of themes:

1. Fun with Color---Many of the designs use two (sometimes more) colors in one piece. 
2. Tesselation---(you get a free math lesson in this book!)

A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps.  Another word for a tessellation is a tiling.

 

When you fit individual tiles together with no gaps or overlaps to fill a flat space like a ceiling, wall, or floor, you have a tiling or a tesselation.

 

A brick wall is a form of tesselation.

 

Tesselation as Applied to Lacemaking/Tatting

In the definition of Tesselation, there are 'no gaps or overlaps' in the formation of a pattern. 

 

This is directly contrary to lacemaking, where we have spaces (gaps) of 'air/nothing' with thread around them to make a 'lacy' appearance. 

 

Some of my SRT designs are true tesselations.   But I have also manipulated the basic design elements to create 'Lace-Tesselations'---possibly a new science/form.

 

My Lace-Tesselation Study started one day about 10-15 years ago when I looked down at the pants I was wearing at the time.  They were a tiny houndstooth print.  At that moment (when I should have been working), I realized that I could recreate that pattern in tatting.  This is what I called my Houndstooth design.  From there I started noticing other patterns in things around me.  I have been known to go up to strangers in coffee-shops and ask them if I could sketch the design on their purses.  I pull out scrap pieces of paper from my purse to sketch in stores.  It wasn't until the last year that I knew that these design ideas had the name of tesselation.  

 

I have stated before, when I can't have a tatting shuttle and thread in my hand (such as at work) I fill my spare time with designing on graph paper.  I have two Design Notebooks with enough SRT designs to fill 4 60-page books!!!  The problem I have is keeping up with tatting the models.  It is something that I love to do....but at times it is a bit overwhelming, knowing how many pieces that are yet to be done.

 

 

 

SRT Book 2

This weekend, I spent time correcting errors that I found on the patterns and illustrations from my edit process of the week before.  I plan to reprint the pages again and will send them to my friend, Jennifer Bartling who will edit/review them for errors too

This book will include a chapter on how to do Split Ring Tatting Technique & Take-Off-Rings via Needle Tatting Technique.  I'm sorry I forgot to address the technical needs of the Needle Tatting World.  Hopefully this will make it right (for awhile).

My wedding picture

This is my wedding picture to Jerry Sayre--August 2, 2013.

My dress was a lace overlay on top of a dark beige underslip.   I wanted a dress that I could enjoy being/comfortable in all night at an outdoor party after the wedding.

My life in the last couple of months/New tatting book writing status

I really am a terrible blogger.

I work full-time in a medical laboratory and thus    I have the time (occasionally) at work...but then I don't have any of the photos that I want to share as they are all on my personal computer.  I am always in the wrong place at the right time!  When I get home (where my personal computer is), I don't usually have the time to devote to blogging.  ARGH!

So let me update you on my life a bit (and hopefully beg for forgiveness & patience at the same time).  Two weeks ago today, I got married for the second time in 30 years.   The wedding was low-key--no flowers, rehearsals, decorations, special attendant clothing, etc---we just walked into the church a block from my house, got married in a 15 minute ceremony and then walked out.  However, the party afterwards WAS NOT low-key.  We had a party in my driveway, frontyard with over 250 people attending.  The theme was low-key: "Blues (music), Booze, and BBQ" (catered).  We strived to keep the prepatory stress-level down, but it still was stressfull.  In fact I broke out in a 'stress-rash' the week before the wedding.  I jokingly said that I was allergic to getting married.  I was confident in my choice to get married to Jerry but the prep of the party was affecting me.   But the end result is that we had a fabulous party--the food, dessert, and band showed up; the weather was cool, and the expected rain did not come (probably because we invested $750 in tents!, Oh well.).  Everything went as planned and a good time was had by all.   That is what I've been doing the last two months (cleaning my house, yard, and garage).

Jerry moved into my house, now 'our' house because he has a small condo only big enough for one person.....in other words, there wasn't enough room for all of my tatting stuff!  We have been getting used to that change in our lives the last two weeks.  We did not take a honeymoon trip....that is coming up the first two weeks in September when we go to Eastern Europe.  I am still cleaning away party stuff and bringing back out the day-to-day stuff in my home to get back to normal.

After the two week trip in September I have a couple of goals:  1. to Blog at least once a week, putting out tatting technique stuff, not just personal stuff.  2. To finish my second tatting book "MORE Fun with Split Ring Tatting". 

This weekend I am fixing errors in my pages that I have found.  Then I am going to print it out again and give it to my friend, Jennifer Bartling, who will proof-read/edit it for me.  She has a very polished eye when it comes to my pattern illustrations.  My goal is to have the book to the printer by the end of October.  Now that I put this into print, hopefully I will have to strive to make it happen.  For the most part, I am a procratinator....I can put most things off indefinetely (especially housework).

My first book Fun with Split Ring Tatting focuses on what is SRT, how to do it, etc. with alot of very unique, geometric patterns. 

My second book MORE Fun with Split Ring Tatting has a new slant on designs.  I will write more about this in future blog posts.

Sure wish I didn't have to work outside the home....I have about 9 books that I want to write!