Tag: earrings

Heart Earrings

Flower Heart from Kelly at Tatfully Yours
I saw some cute heart earrings at West Pine Creations and followed her link to Tatfully Yours for the pattern.  I must admit I didn’t follow her pattern but just followed her lead but she did post the pattern if anyone would like to give them a try.  They make really nice earrings that tat up quickly.  Kelly also put them together to make a wonderful snowflake.  
These are made of Lizbeth size 20 in Christmas Red #671 with silver beads.  My daughters really like them. (Me, too!)  Thanks, Kelly, for these wonderful little hearts. 
I didn’t get a lot of tatting done this week as our daughter and family came to visit for the weekend.  We just had too much to do to have much time to tat.  And it is somewhat hard to tat with little ones sharing your lap:-)
My attempt at TIAS 2013 in Lizbeth #131 Vineyard Harvest in size 20
What can it be?
Are you doing Jane’s TIAS this year?  She’s still keeping us guessing as we haven’t even reached the halfway point yet.  She’s also got a lot of us trying new techniques such as split chains and Catherine Wheel Joins.  I’ve made a few mistakes as I’ve gone on but that’s because I didn’t practice those techniques before starting – my own fault as she warned us!  But I’ve been trying them where I hadn’t tried them before.  It’s lots of fun to see the colors everyone is using and what their guesses might be.  There are people from all over the world tatting along with her, bringing Tat Land together with this game.  Isn’t Jane just the greatest? 
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your heart.”
Ecclesiastes 9:10

Heart and Earrings

Lizbeth Christmas Red #671 size 20

  I told my husband that he should come up with what he wanted to give his mother for Christmas this year;  he asked if I couldn’t come up with “a pin or something”.  This is the pin that I came up with. The tatted heart is a clover surrounded by two rounds of chains, then glued to a wooden heart.  I added the angel charm to the front and a pin clip to the back so it can be worn as a pin/brooch.  I just noticed in the picture that when I glued the heart down one side didn’t lay quite right.  Oh, well, too late now.  It still looks pretty nice.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the heart is similar to someone else’s pattern, but I came up with it without referring to a pattern. In fact, the evening I started on it I had tried one idea and pitched it before starting on the clover and the first round.  At that point I thought it looked pretty ugly, too, but went to bed before starting again.  The next morning when I looked at it again it was still ugly but I thought I’d try one more thing before giving up on this version.  Once I put the second round on it looked a lot better!  I also just realized I don’t have a picture of the heart without the charm in front of it.  I guess that will be for another post. 

Lizbeth Seagreen Dark #688 size 20 and pink seed beads
Both of my daughters were enthusiastic about getting earrings for Christmas.  I made both sets in the same pattern but in different colors.  The other set is in pink thread with black beads (her favorite color combination).
Lizbeth Western Sunset #102 size 20 and silver seed beads
These are my first tatting of the new year.  I made these in the car on January 1 while coming back from a visit to our daughter in Omaha.  I started with the piece on the left, just doodling.  I thought it looked too big for earrings so I made two others a little bit smaller for earrings to go with the pendant.  The pendant is somewhat small and the earrings are somewhat large (for me) but wearable.  I’m definitely going to change the bale on the pendant but it was the only one I could find at home.
Now that Christmas is over I feel the need to start on the list of tatting that I’ve put off for one reason or another.  It’s also possible that I could be giving some tatting lessons soon, so I need to figure out what I need for that. And IsDihara over at Ambitatterous  has me thinking about what techniques I might want to learn this year.  Looks like I’m already busy, busy.
Welcome to 2013!
“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.” 
Denis Waitley
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A little ingenuity

The craft show was last Saturday.  We didn’t do too bad, though not as good as we’d hoped.  but all in all it was a fun day.
I did run into a few issues.  I’ve done craft shows before but I wasn’t selling jewelry or anything attached to a card like I was this year.  There it was, Friday night, we’ve set up the tables and other displays in the show hall but not our sale items – we planned to put those out Saturday morning – when I realized I hadn’t planned on how to display the earrings and wine glass charms.  I had spent time attaching them to cards but hadn’t given a thought to what I was going to do with them after they were attached!
I start wandering around the house trying to think of what I had to hang them on, my mind a blank.  It was getting late and I was tired and getting a little frustrated.  I thought of putting several strands of wire in a picture frame but I would still have to prop or hold up the frame and that was the problem.  I figured I could lay out a few on the tables here and there but that wouldn’t do for all of them.  
Then I had an idea.  Do you see it?  Can you guess what it is? (I know, the picture is pretty blurry)
Does this help you see my wire cooling rack?  And an ankle weight.
I found a wire display stand, like you would use to display a book or plate on a table top, but putting anything on it tall enough to display the earrings made it topple over.  So an ankle weight around the legs and covered with a piece of cloth, then the rack wired to the front legs of the stand.  A little garland around the top, and I had an earring display stand. 
Then I had another idea. 
There on the left back – it’s a spool tree, to hold spools of thread.  I only used two sides but it did lift a few earrings up so they could be seen. 
My sister and I are talking about trying another show, maybe in the spring.  If/when we do, I’ll have taken the time to come up with a little better display idea.  But they worked for this time.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein

Variations on a charm

I have continued making charms for the craft show coming up this weekend, but I’ve also been making a few earrings.  These earrings are just a little more elaborate than the wine glass charms, but still just chains around a doodad.  With beads.  

The colors are not showing up true to life.  The four on the left are Christmas Red, Lizbeth # 671, the center two are Navy Blue, Lizbeth # 654 and the four on the right are Burgundy, Lizbeth # 672.  They are all in size 20. 
As most people seem to like silver jewelry instead of gold right now I’ve been doing most of the charms and  earrings in silver.  I have made a few things with gold centers and beads because they just look so good in them.
I’ve not been checking out too many blogs the last week or so.  I just get sucked in and go from one to another and totally loose track of time.  And I’m a bit short on time right now!  I’ve tatted a lot of the charms, now I need to put the rings on them.  And do some more earrings.  And a few other things I’m wanting to get done for the show.  Then there are a few things I can’t not do, like cook once in a while, do a little laundry, that type of thing.  The good news is I’ve taken this week off from work to get some crafting done.  I’m not sure just how much I’ll actually get done, but certainly more than if I was having to go to work. 
After the craft show is over I’ll be concentrating on getting things done for Christmas.  And  cleaning my house, which has been very much neglected.  I have thread, beads and other miscellaneous crafty things all over the place – imagine that!
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” C.S. Lewis

Charmed

At least my wine glasses are.
I’ve been doing a lot of tatting lately but not everything has come out like I’d like.  The wine glass charms are one thing that I think has come out well.   I showed them to my sister the other day when her son, who was there as well, said he thought they were pretty cool.  This surprised both his mother and I as he doesn’t usually notice such things.  
He asked if he could take a picture of them to send to his girlfriend.  Hmmm, like I had to think very hard about that one. 
I’ve made sets of them in jewel tones and autumn colors, four colors in a set.  I’m thinking these will work very well for Christmas gifts this year.  A lot of the nieces and nephews are in college, or at least that age now, and wine glasses with wine glass charms would work well as gifts, don’t you think?
They also make cute, easy earrings.  I still had some thread on my shuttle from the blue ones so made two more and put them on earring wires instead of the rings.  When I wore them to work the other day one lady said she definitely would like a pair.  I asked her what color she wanted.  

I made two sets using two different centers and let her choose.  
My sister and I are going to do a local craft show in a few weeks where I hope to sell some of these, too, both wine glass charm sets and earrings.  We thought business cards would be a good idea, in case there were any special orders.  We used to do several craft shows a year but haven’t for quite a while now.  Lately we’ve been talking about trying to do a couple of local shows, just for fun.  We can’t use the same name as we had before because we had a third person with us which fit the name, but it doesn’t now.  Do you know how hard it can be to come up with a name we both like, fits what we do/may do and isn’t already taken??
I have to thank Sharon and her Design-Tat class for the designs on our business cards.  We plan to print our own as we don’t expect to need a lot, but they needed some graphics to be more than just words.  I looked online for free graphics that would fit our name/theme and couldn’t find any I liked.  There are a lot of sewing ones out there, and a few tatting ones, but, but – not quite right.   So I made the graphics myself utilising the knowledge I learned in the Design Tat class as well as the software program that I now use for my tatting patterns   I think they came out pretty well if I do say so myself. 
One bad thing about making these are that they are very quick to tat.  How can that be a problem?   It means I’m hiding a lot of ends frequently.  I’ve taken to making the charms/earrings in batches then sewing in all the ends.  My fingers have gotten a little sore.  I’ve taken to using my little jewelry pliers to pull the needle through – very carefully.  I’ve already broken one needle. The good news is my fingers are not as sore!
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”  Oscar Wilde

Gift from umintsuru

Tatted by umintsuru
Aren’t these earrings gorgeous?  The picture doesn’t do them justice at all!  Wendy has a much better picture over on her blog. 
These are my gift from Wendy for her Pay It Forward giveaway.  They are made with Lizbeth “Spring Fling” in size 80.   When I opened the envelope there were a lot of “oohs” and “awes” as we looked these over.  Thank you very much, Wendy, I love them!
Looking back over my blog posts I realized I hadn’t posted what I gave for my PIF, inspired by Wendy’s post last fall.  Medictabs,Robert and Suztats were the first three people to leave a message on my blogpost and were the winners.  When I decided to do it I didn’t have even a small clue of what I was going to send them, so it took a little while to get them done.  But they finally were sent off.

I’ve always wanted to do some Crazy Quilting – but I don’t quilt and rarely embroider, so it hasn’t happened yet 🙂  Instead I did a little “CQing” on Altoid tins for their gifts.

I added a few things on the inside.  Each was different inside and outside, but similar.

 The pink heart is a needle threader. The “match book” is a needleholder.  Each one also got a decorated shuttle that coordinated with their thin, and a ball of J &  P Coats size 80 tatting thread – it all fit inside the tin.

This was a lot of fun to do.  And really nice to win Wendy’s PIF.  Thanks again, Wendy 🙂

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”  William James

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