Busy Little Listing Bee

Back at the end of November, I spent a good three weeks tatting my fingers to the bone and acquiring endless paper cuts working on cards to get ready to a craft fair I wanted to attend. Most of the work I wanted to accomplish done, I went to turn in my application and pay my fee, only to be told they'd been full for two weeks. Frailty, thy name is procrastination. The end result of this, is that I now have lots of work to photograph and list. Procrastination got in the way again. But I finally wrestled that evil little devil to the ground and pinned him down long enough to get a little etsy work done. One pair of earrings sold within twenty-four hours! Here are a few of the other little items I've listed this week:

White Filligree Drop Earrings

Live Charmed Earrings

Ring Around the Daisy Pendant

Peachy Keen Pendant

There are a few more items in my shop that aren't listed here, so take a sec and go check it out! More to come soon.

Playing with new techniques

I checked out a new tatting book from the library the other day and started playing with some new techniques. I always seem to find that things I think are going to be difficult never turn out to be in the end. After some frustration and confusion, I finally mastered the Dora Young knot, in spite of watching a YouTube video that had it completely wrong. One of these days, I might have to do some of my own videos, but that's a project for another time. Anyway, after playing with using the Dora Young knot to cover some small plastic rings I had lying around, I ended up creating this stunning new pendant:

Neige Noir Pendant

It still boggles my mind that I covered that ring using the shuttle when the shuttle can't fit through the tiny little ring! If I hadn't done it myself, I wouldn't believe it was possible. I still almost don't. I see many more pendants with that pattern in my future.

Between continuous thread technique, the Dora Young knot, and split rings, I worked the whole thing without breaking the yarn until after the very last chain. I'm sure that for any readers I have that don't tat, this is all sounding like a lot of nonsense. To you, I'll just say, look at the pretty pendant, and don't worry about it.

Sale!

Having a sale on pendants! Buy one tatted pendant, get one free! Just purchase any two pendants from my shop and I'll send you an adjusted invoice through Paypal! Help me make room for new stock.

http://www.etsy.com/search_results_shop.php?search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_5252351&search_query=pendants

New Pretties!

I've spent the past few days sorting through a big assortment of vintage buttons I ordered from a fellow etsian. I got some really interesting pieces! So far, I've made three new pendants which I've photographed and listed and four Christmas ornaments which I haven't. Here are the listings for the new pendants:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_3&listing_id=17034969
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_2&listing_id=17035747
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_1&listing_id=17036202

Off to sort more buttons!

Gifts, Ghouls, and Giveaways!

Did a bunch of listing the other day! I finally found where I had hidden my blue and purple threads from myself. Now I just have to figure out where the pinks and yellow are hiding.

Purple being my favorite color, once I found the threads, I just had to set to work on some purple pieces! I particularly love the way this one turned out:

I've had a bunch of those dragonfly charms hanging out with my beads for a while. I made stitch markers out of them a year or so ago and didn't know what to do with the rest. I got this pattern to work around a bead and thought it was worth a try with the charm. I think it turned out well. I'm hoping someone will want some pendants for stocking stuffers this year. I've been putting them up in all the promotions forums I can on etsy trying to get a little attention. I have to make some for myself, too.

As Halloween is quick approaching, I figured it was time I gave a nod to my favorite holiday. So, I dug out the Halloween socks I bought at the thrift store a few months ago. They had never even been worn! I was really tempted to wear them this year, but they just had to be turned into creatures:

Their names are Boo (the big one) and Eek (the smaller one). The socks had little spots that had flashing lights in them and I transfered those so that each has an arm that lights up! They're so cute. Oh, and they've got some of my hand tatted spiders sewn to each of them!

I've teamed up with another etsian to do a giveaway on her blog! Actually, it's a team, but I've just been talking with one of the two through emails/convos. Anyway, here's a link to the giveaway of a batch of my hand tatted flowers:

http://raechele.blogspot.com/2008/09/keenaskreations-giveaway.html

Okay, off to put some more tatting blisters on my fingers. Working on a choker that should be gorgeous when it's finished. Assuming all goes well. . . .

Calluses and Stitches

Wow! So I have neglected this blog forever, huh?!

Well, I've been working like crazy on several projects. Unfortunately a lot of supplies and works in progress are packed up in the storage room and unreachable at the moment. So, my focus has been forcibly shifted from the embroidery I was working on, so I've been tatting until my calluses have formed calluses!

I have realized that one of my problems in life as well as crafting is that I'm too symmetrically-minded. I decided to do something about that. I have a huge pile of beads that I had rejected from one project or another because they were uneven or chipped or whatever. Well, I finally figured out what to do with the reject beads! I have made them the focal point of tatted pendants! Suddenly the reject beads are my new favorites!

This one was an uneven triangular shape with the most beautiful amber color. I used black DMC tatting thread and brownish-amber seed beads around the outside. I love this one. This clumsy bead has now become a delicate and delightful piece, if I do say so myself!

Of course, working each pendant around a particular bead means that each one, though the pattern may end up being simple, leads to a huge pile of wasted thread and work as one attempt after another doesn't work or just does look right.

If there's one thing I love more than the reject beads, it's buttons. I think it goes back to spending slow days in the Costume Shop sorting buttons, but I just love playing with buttons. Where the reject bead pendants are a matter of taking something odd or clumsy and making something delicate, the button pendants I've made are about taking something simple and commonplace and making in extraordinary. So, here's my favorite button pendant so far:

I call it Peaches and Cream. I know, not that creative a name, but after you spend several hours working on something, you don't always have my creativity left. Anyway, the picture doesn't really do it justice, but I love this pendant. I might have to make another for myself, but I put this one up in my shop along with all the others. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5252351

I was also finally smart enough to start a tatting journal so that I can remember all my patterns when I try to go back and repeat them. Sometimes I do organized things, I swear! Maybe some day I'll be able to publish my own pattern book instead of just buying everyone else's. Lol.