Design

I have been spending the past several days' spare time working on more designs.  These began as existing patterns, were adapted to bring the final product into something more like what I wanted, and finally, I began with bare thread on one or 2 shuttles to create the piece of lace that I was really interested in.

This is quite a process.  I have taken Sharon Briggs' on-line tatting class 3 or more times and benefited from it immensely!  I'm not sure if she is offering the "Design-Tat" class again in the near future, but it is well worth the time if it is offered again.  Sharon puts a great deal of effort into understanding the basics of tatting first and then into adapting those basics so that the tatter can design their own motifs and edgings (and more) without a lot of prior experience in design or intense effort.  She even discusses the use of simple software to record the pattern.  Writing the pattern or diagramming it is often the most serious challenge to the designer.  There is a link to the blog that provided most of the images and techniques she advocated that was a related link off Sharon's Tatted Lace page . 

This motif is from Julia Sanders' reprint of the Priscilla tatting book #2.  Just looking at it, it's clear that the resulting motif could be described as awkward.  Obviously, I am not too happy with it, but hope to create something that looks a bit like a piece of wrapped hard candy by the time I am through.

More information on that soon