As of June 1st I am officially retired from my career as an Electron Microscopy Technologist (with side jobs as an Neuropathology Technologist). I started my career at Creighton University (Omaha, NE) and was there for 27 years until it was obvious that my job wouldn’t be viable for much longer. So I ‘jumped ship’ to Nebraska Medicine/Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center where I worked for almost 12 years. My wonderful husband suggested that I retire early. I was planning on retiring at the end of the year, but Jerry encouraged me to bump up the date. So for 2+ months I was feverishly training my successor. It appears that she is the perfect candidate for the job and is excited about making it a career for herself.
To celebrate my retirement, Jerry and I immediately left for a 2500+ mile trip on our new (to us in 2020) motorcycles. We traveled down the Mississippi River Valley from Iowa to Louisiana where we explored the bayou/cajun region. Jerry ‘worked-from-home’ there for one week. We enjoyed the swamps, marsh, bayous, and the food (Cajun and seafood). I choose Louisiana to travel to because it WAS the only state that I had not motorcycled in. Now I can say that I have ridden a motorcycle in all fifty states!
Me and a few of my co-workers–impromptu going-away/happy retirement party. Andrea, my replacement is in the checkered shirt.Some of my besties: Thanh (who I worked with in the Neuropathology Lab), Me, Lisa and Mike (long-time co-workers from our Creighton Univ. days)Me working at my ultramicrotome–an instrument I spent a large amount of time at.
My tools for ultramicrotomy work: I make ultrathin slices (sections) of the black material (human kidney tissue) in the yellow cylinder (the block) and put the slices on the copper grids. One of my tools is an eyelash attached to a handle as well as the razor blade.
Me and my Transmission Electron Microscope.This is the final product of my work…an image of a slice (section) of human tissue (in this case kidney). The images go to a pathologist (MD) who makes a diagnosis of disease typeMy office was adorned in lace.
A recent study has indicated that threads give off certain pheromones that hypnotize women (and some men) and cause them to purchase ungodly amounts of thread. When stored in large quantities in enclosed spaces (ie. stores), the pheromones in the thread causes memory loss and induce 'gathering syndrome' (similar to the one's in squirrels before the onset of winter).
Sound tests have also revealed that these threads emit a very high-pitched sound heard by only a select few (known as 'tatters'). When played backward these sounds are heard as chants: '...BUY ME! TAT ME!....'
Furthermore, the pheromones seem to cause a pathological need to secret the thread purchases away when one takes them home and blend them into the existing stash.
In order to overcome the so-called feeding frenzy effect that these threads cause, one must wear a face mask and ear plugs when entering the primary acquisition facilities (stores or internet websites) to avoid being pulled into their grip. It is also beneficial to enter these facilities without the presence of cash or credit cards.
Sad to say, the addictive qualities of this compulsive behavior are cumulative and are ameliorated only by the purchase of more and more and more threads.
A while back an old friend ('old' as in I've known him a long time) gifted me this antique tatted purse/bag.
He found it while cleaning out his late mother's home. She had put a note in it saying that she had bought it at an garage sale in the last decade...thus no clue as to its age or provenance.
I knew Marge and have a lot of history with several of her kids. Thus it is an honor to have received this piece.
I tatted snowflakes Tuesday,
They really were a must.
The symmetry was quite lovely,
But I forgot to dust.
On Wednesday I tatted crosses,
I so enjoyed the fun.
I learned to pray while tatting,
But the laundry didn’t get done.
I learned to tat split Rings on Thursday,
It’s fun to use two threads.
I guess I really was engrossed,
I never made the bed.
I started a doily on Friday,
Oh how the colors I adore.
But somehow in the enjoyment,
I didn’t notice the dirty floor.
I added beads to my tatting on Saturday,
They really enhance my double stitches.
I was so engaged with those shiny things,
That I ignored the dirty dishes
I found a maid on Sunday,
My week is now complete.
Now I can tat the hours away,
And my house will still be neat.
I saw this in a gardening catalog quite a few years ago. In the last year my friend Anita Barry either bought one or found reference to this plant. I am archiving it here on my webpage for my own future reference. Maybe one day I will actively try to find/plant one.
I found this fabric on the web quite a long time ago. The name of the design is 'Lost & Found Love' by Riley Blake Designs. It can still be found on eBay and Etsy to name a few places. It looks like it came in 3 different color options.
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Several years ago I finally joined the neighborhood women’s book club. I will have to profess that in the last 20-30 years I have not been much of a reader. First and foremost, I spend my available free time either tatting, creating needlelace, teaching fiber art techniques, and/or designing/laying out/publishing my books. Keep in mind that I work full-time. But with the realization that I’m an empty-nester, I decided that it was time for me to expand my horizons via reading and what better way than to join a book club. In addition to the stimulation that reading a book gives me, the book club gave me a way to keep in touch with the neighborhood women. And as an added bonus, the get togethers feature goodies of wine and yummy snacks!!! For a long time, I wouldn’t even consider choosing a book for the group to read (they were all experienced readers, whereas I was new to reading). That was until I went to The Sunflower Lacemakers biannual lacemaking retreat and one of the members mentioned that they had found & joined a book club because she had been invited as a ‘lacemaking expert’ while the were reading/discussing a lace related book. This got me to thinking…’what if I used a lace related book to introduce my form of relaxation/interest (lace and lacemaking) to my book-reading friends’?
So I read 2 different books: The Lacemakers Daughter by Diane Keziah Robertson & The Lace Reader by Brumonia Barry. I asked one of the book club members to read both to help choose the most appropriate book for the group and she chose the latter one–The Lace Reader.
I set out a plan to utilize this opportunity to introduce these ‘readers’ to the world of lace. I have a collection of lace acquired through the years in various ways. Some pieces were collected because of my active study of the type: Romanian Point, Teneriffe, Nanduti. Some were ‘rescued’ from antique and thrift shops, some were gifts, etc. None of my pieces are extremely rare or expensive. But all are loved & appreciated. I filled my dining room table with representative pieces of different forms of lace including my own tatting, various needlelace types, bobbin lace, knitted, crocheted and machine lace.
Lower left: machine-made lace. Upper left & lower right: bobbin lace. Upper right: Teneriffe/Nanduti LaceLower left: Netted Lace. Swan: Carrickmacross Lace (my design/work). Pile of tatting. My tatting books. Romanian Point Lace. Filet Lace. Knitted lace.White piece: Knotted lace (Armenian?). Colored: Nanduti. Black: Teneriffe Lace. Storage bins of my collection.
In addition to my collection of lace, I asked my beautiful lacemaking friend, Jennifer Bartling to come in & demonstrate bobbin lacing technique. In the book, The Lace Reader, the characters did bobbin lacemaking. Jennifer drove over 30 miles one way to help me educate my bookclub friends about lacemaking. I regretfully do not have a photo of her demonstrating…..I was too busy that night being a hostess: food, wine, welcoming my guests, as well as giving a verbal/visual tutorial about what is lace, lace types, etc.. I didn’t take the time to take photographs of Jennifer as she was demonstrating.
To my knowledge, I didn’t find any willing recruits wanting to learn a lacemaking or fiber art technique, at least I did try to educate about lace and lacemaking. In the past I used to take tatting and needlelace-making techniques into a ‘cross-stitch’ festival/teaching environment. It was again my attempt to sway ‘cross-stitchers’ into becoming ‘tatters’ or ‘lacemakers’. But I will have to tell you that despite my best efforts, I have come to realize that for the most part, one’s first hobby (reading in the book club group; cross-stitching in the needlework show group) is usually where they choose to stay.
The Lace Reader has a complex enough story line that even the most advanced readers of the book club were sufficiently amused. The victim of the book was a lacemaker who was also a ‘lace reader’. She would hold up a piece of lace in front of a person and read their ‘fortune’. I had never heard of a ‘lace reader’ even though I have been in/around the lacemaking world for a long time (several decades). I did some research on the internet and the only reference to such a thing kept coming back to this book. Thus I believe that the author make it up–a fictional thing for a fictional book.
I'm not sure how long it has been down, but that is impertinent now.
I have many blog posts ready to publish in draft-form and will strive to periodically publish at least one per week.
I have chosen to keep my website going, in addition to this blogsite and FB page for TheShuttleSmith Tatting because I have ALOT of tatting related data archived on my website.
I've been told that my website format not very easy to use, but I'm not sure what I can do about that. I probably should hire a social media influencer, but am not sure how to go about that either.
For now, I think you will find that there is alot of information on my website if you only take the time to try to rummage throught it.
