Tatting Around Cabochons

After being inspired by Diane's Ice Drops,  I purchased some nice glass cabochons with intricate images (see previous post) but I was finding the rings were hiding too much of the pretty designs so I looked for ways to make more space in the centre.  I changed the stitch count of the top rings but it still wasn't quite right...

I only changed the count by one stitch or two on these...

I made a different edging on the purple version and the green version

is as per Diane's pattern which can be found here...

but I ran out of thread.  I shall be re-making that one.

So then I thought I'd try with much smaller rings but longer picots.  Yes, that's better.  A lot more of the cabochon is exposed.  Of course, you'll always have some of the gem hidden with a bezel type of design.  But not only does this give more space in the middle but the long picots also allow more viewing of the design than the rings did.

This does require the use of a picot gauge.

Next, I made another with a decorative round

which I improvised.

And another with Josephine knots instead...

Tatting around stones and cabochons is a technique that can be seen used by Marilee here loosely following Corina's method who was actually explaining the technique as she'd seen it on a Russian forum... and once I started searching for tatting around stones on internet, I found lots of other examples so I'm not sure exactly where it first started.  Anyway, I'd just never tried it before myself until seeing Diane's enthusiasm and her growing collection of ice drops!  

I also changed the construction... that's only because for some reason, I kept getting confused when it came to doing the top portion of the pattern, I was getting muddled up with direction of tatting so I wondered about doing both back and front and edge at the same time which worked better for me.  So I make front and back rings and first chain in the first round and then just add whatever decorative extras you wish on the next round.  

This was another variation but again, I ran out of thread!

It was a little tight anyway so rather than join new thread, I will start again on that one.

I'm also thinking I might put two cabochons back to back

so that it would be reversible (instead of just have plain white on the back).

This is the last one I made:

It's my favourite so far!

I'd run out of thread on one shuttle (this is getting to be a theme!) so I made a spiral chain for this one instead of a lock chain (nearly all thread comes from one shuttle for a spiral as opposed to equally from both shuttles with a lock chain).

I thought I was finished with this blogpost but I started working on another (I'm going to be giving these away while on holiday).  I changed it slightly again and I think I prefer the placement of the long picots.  I'm showing you a side shot so you can see how the cabochon is visible on the sides too, through the long picots.  Ooh, this one could be my new favourite!  :-)

The colour is not accurate in this photo;
This is "Fern Green Med" although it looks grey.

These experiments have given me more ideas as I've enjoyed working with the glass cabochons and might now have a go with larger ones.  The ones used here are 20mm.

Best wishes,

Frivole