A Bit of Beading for a Change...

I had a gift to make for someone's birthday... so I went for a beaded bracelet.  I had not done any beading for a while and I really enjoyed making it.  It didn't take very long to make at all.

In fact I liked it so much that I made another one in different colours...

I used magnet clasps...

but then ended up changing it for a lobster clasp on the second bracelet.

Any of you use magnet clasps?

They are so easy to attach...

but I find they are also easy to just knock as you wear them

and then the bracelet comes undone!

Is it just me or has anyone else had that experience?

Back to the topic of ceramics,

I glazed several of my pieces.

Not all successful.

But it's such a learning curve!

One little pot has now become our butter dish:

I'm continuing to practice with throwing.

Here are the last couple of pieces I made last week.

I was particularly pleased with the round pot:

And I had a special order from my son for a handle-less tea mug

with the specific shape as per below:

I'm happy I'm finally managing to make thinner rims.

Tomorrow, I'll turn and tidy the bases and send them to the kiln... And then try some more!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Ceramics (and a tiny bit of tatting!)

Still busy enjoying ceramics at the moment.  Throwing is getting a bit better though very inconsistent!

The little cups at the back have tatted snowflakes stamped into them (like the vase from the previous post).  I have now glazed them and they are waiting to be fired again.

First time throwing "off the hump"

The pieces below are waiting to dry

before finishing off the bottoms

so they can then be bisque-fired.

I also attempted a pot with lid.

It turned out looking very "pearish".

So I tried a second time...

to make a pear...

And even shaped the top like a leaf.

This one is waiting to dry enough so that I can cut the lid.

Can't wait to see what it's like inside

and if I've managed to make the walls thinner.

And to finish,

I'm trying to make moulds of lace to use in pottery.

This was one attempt:

It's not going to work for what I wanted...

but I can still press clay into it and get a pretty good imprint.

I'll try it when I'm next there and show you.

See?  Lots of pottery... but still tatting!  :-)

Best wishes,

Frivole

Snow Crystals Ceramic

I got to glaze the pots I made just before Christmas.  I tried three different glazes.  When you dip the pottery in the liquid glaze and pull the pieces out to dry before firing, they look rather similar.  All three of those colours looked like various shades of pale grey... but what a lovely surprise when they come out of the kiln!

If you remember from the previous post about this, I'd pressed one of my laser-cut snowflakes into the still soft clay.  The laser-cut snowflake was drawn from my Snow Crystal tatting pattern.  I like the thought of combining pottery and tatting.

And here's a close-up of the flower pot

glazed in "apple green":

This week I'm planning on making plaster moulds with some of my tatted lace so that I can make lace pieces out of clay which I'll then apply to the surface of the pots.  That's the plan anyway...  we'll see how that works out!

I've also had a go throwing pots on the wheel... very unsuccessfully to begin with but I'm improving.  I have a few pieces waiting to be fired and can't wait to see how they come out.  My thrown pieces are still a bit too thick and chunky but I hope that with more experience I'll improve and be able to make better ones.  I didn't have much time to play with ceramics last term so I'm enjoying it now.  But it's also time for research and writing this term so I'll have to try to get the balance right.

Best wishes,
Frivole

Other Lace

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday and that 2019 is off to a great start for you.

I've been asked to do a presentation on my lace so as part of that, I've been digging out other types of laces I have made over the years.  This is just a small sample I'm taking with me tonight but I thought it might be interesting to show it here on my blog as well.

The little bits of tatting need no explanation but here are some close-ups of the other types of lace and what they are:

These are some Irish crochet flowers, leaves and scrolls.
These elements then need to be linked together with a background stitch...
but mine never made it to that stage!

This is some needle lace.
Experienced needle lace-makers would no doubt use much finer thread than what I used here
but these were some practice pieces.

The roll of lace you can see in the bottom of the photo is
a length of torchon lace which is the very first type of bobbin lace
I learned to make when I was a teenager.

This is Bucks Point lace (bobbin lace)
with a shadow-embroidered bow and little bullion knot rose on the fabric above.
This is the lace I used to hem the sleeves of a christening gown I made for our 4th child.

And finally the pieces on the right of the first photo
are Honiton lace (bobbin also)
This is definitely the finest lace I ever made
(fine in the meaning that the thread is the finest I have ever used to make lace).

I know many of you tatters, will also be other types of lace-makers too, I'd love to hear what other laces you make - please leave a comment!

Best wishes,

Frivole

And the Winner is?...

Sorry everyone, unexpected events got in the way and I was not able to do the draw on Sunday as planned.  But here I am Tuesday morning, and in fact I don't think there's been any new comments since Sunday so you still have the same chance to win.  I shall go enter the number into the random number generator and let you know who the winner is.  There were 43 comments.

Drum Roll.......

And the winner is:

Number 38

and that is N. Maria

(Please contact me with your mailing address)

CONGRATULATIONS!

I will be shipping the earrings to you this week.

I was spoilt too this week as I received a lovely parcel from Germany which contained not one but several treats!  Some beautiful tatted flowers and a wonderfully scented candle and also this really cool candle holder...

It looks so pretty when you light the small candle inside.

I love it.

Thank you so much!

This may well be my last post until after Christmas

so I would like to wish you all a...

I hope 2019 will be a happy, healthy, and creative one for all of you.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Christmas Giveaway

Hello everyone, I hope your Christmas preparations are going well?  

My Christmas gift to you this year is a pair of earrings that I drew from my Snow Crystal tatting pattern and then laser-cut out of Perspex.  I think clear Perspex makes them look "icy" and realistic (apart from their size of course!).  They are hung from sterling silver ear wires.

I'm wearing a pair myself today as I'm typing this.  They are lovely, lightweight,

and perfect for this time of year!

 I hope you'll like them.

Please leave a comment to be entered in the draw,

which will take place next Sunday, the 16th of December.

Please only leave one comment and I'll not publish any answers myself

so as to make counting easier!

(but thank you in advance for all your comments)

I'm afraid this may mean whoever wins

might not receive the earrings in time for Christmas

but I just didn't manage to get organised any earlier.

See it as a New Year gift.  :-)

I've enjoyed working at making drawings of my tatting patterns and as you can see below, just small changes from the same pattern create quite different looks.  All four designs below are based on my Snow Crystal design but I just slightly changed the way I drew them or added an extra element here and there.

The white one is also clear Perspex but I have not yet removed the protective sheet.

Makes me think they'd look nice in white too though...

So that's it for this blogpost, back to studies for me for another week.  Good luck for the draw if you're entering it!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Twinkle Cabochon Variations

I was recently shown an "ice drop" version of my Twinkle Twinkle pattern that a lady made in the "Ice Drop Addicts" Facebook group.  It looked really pretty.

I think she had used a 12mm cabochon for hers but I did not have any that size so I went with what I had, and tried it with a 20mm flatback rhinestone cabochon.

I think my centre is a bit too big but it set me off trying variations on that theme.

I have played with cabochons before (see this post) but realise now I think I forgot to take notes!  Silly me.  I can't remember my stitch counts so will have to try to examine my photos closely to figure it out.

Anyway, this time around again I was keen to see more of the cabochons so I went with my smaller-rings-longer-picots style for the front side.

Here is a very quick pattern for them if you are interested:

I make both sets of rings at the same time in the first round.  I was working on a video of this pattern yesterday but sadly it didn't work out very well and I'm having to re-film it.  But I hope to have one uploaded very soon.

First Round:

R3--3--3 (picots made with a 8mm gauge), dnrw and with same shuttle R8-2-8 (very small picots)

Fold two rings back to back and tat C4-1--1-4 (graduated picots), rw

R3+3--3  (second picot made with 8mm gauge)

With the other shuttle R8+2-8, rw

C4-1--1-4...

Continue like this all the way around, not forgetting to join the last rings on both sides.  The last ring on the back is a bit fiddly to accomplish but it's do-able!  :-)

Join back at the beginning.  Dnrw.

Second Round:

C5-2-2-2, SCMR3-1--1-3, carry on with C2-2-2-5, join at base of small ring.

Repeat all around.  Cut tie, hide ends (or use magic loops, inserting them in the first and last chains of the second round).

If you prefer not to use a SCMR, you can use a regular thrown ring instead but the points will be rounded.  Here is what the motif looks like with thrown rings:

I can't believe it's December already!  

... keep an eye out, I'm thinking of doing a Christmas giveaway very soon.

Best wishes,

Frivole