IOLI report.

Yes everyone, I have returned. My visit to the IOLI lace conference was short but sweet. Sandy overcame a major obstacle to get there, she ended up having two root canals on Monday. Eesssh. But she braved through the pain and she drove us down to Portland for the big day.

We had two objectives in making the trip. One, was Mimi Dillman's class on clunies. (I'll do another post on that) and the other was of course the vendors. The room pictured above was where all the goodies were housed, and as expected, probably 80% was bobbin lace oriented supples, but there was a smattering of tatting items available, including some Lizbeth, but no one seemed to have the newest colors.

I did make it home with a few balls of thread......my favorite find is the five balls of Altin Basak that you see in the middle. This is the first time I've seen a whole bin full of it, and I had to resist the urge to climb in and swim around in it.

One of the other highlights was the exhibit room. These beautiful tatted and beaded jewelry pieces are done by Karen Miner, and Sandy and I are going to try to get her to guild to teach a class for us.







This beautiful butterfly is something that caught my particular attention. It is done in Romanian Point Lace. Now, I have seen different laces at Guild meetings, but not anything I wanted to learn. This type of lace is very textural, and is built on a crocheted cording. It is couched to muslin, and then the filling needle lace stitches are connecting the cords together. The cording is very unique and I can see many applications in jewelry. The disappointment about Romanian Point lace, is the lack of availability in patterns and information. There was one teacher at the conference, and I did purchase her beginning book as well as a kit. Once I got home I looked around online, and discovered that I had become interested in something even more obscure than tatting it would seem. There has been one other book published on RPL, but it is out of print and unavailable. I do have Sylvia Murariu's website for patterns and information, and there are gals at guild who have taken her classes so all is not lost.

On our way back home we stopped by Shipwreck beads and did a little more damage.

I will need to do another post to show what we did in our clunies class, and show another goodie that I got, but am too lazy to go take a picture of right now. :-0

In case you were wondering...

Yesterday I mentioned that I would today be heading off to I.O.L.I. and for those of you who don't know it stands for International Old Lacers, Inc. (the lace techniques are old, not necesserily the lacers themselves, however in some cases both are true.) It's their big convention this week, in Portland this year. Next year it is going to be in Maryland or some "M" state on the other coast, so I thought I would take advantage of the proximity this time around.



Most of what goes on all week will be dedicated to Bobbin and Needle laces. Most of the classes run for 12 hours over five days..... there are only two "mini classes" available for tatting, one of which I will be attending. Sandy, who you may have seen in my Shuttlebirds pictures, is someone I met at the Guild. We have become fast friends and she has invited me to tag along with her on this trip. We hope to see much in the way of displays and vendors!



Being just an overnight trip, I have packed only a small pouch of tatting supplies containing the needed supplies for the clunies class, and another of the bridal necklaces that i am working on, this time in a brown with beautiful bronzy beads. It will be amazing. I think I will make one for myself.



In this poor picture taken from my laptop, hopefully you will be able to see the pair of earrings I whipped up last night to wear to the big convention. I'll Be back tomorrow friends! Until then, happy tatting!

The bride's necklace in black

Had enough of these yet lol? Snarky self portraits for my etsy listings. I promise, I'll save the rest for etsy.

Anyway, this is the bridal necklace in black. I found the most wonderful Matte black beads. Darn thing takes three days to make, 26 ends to hide Yech! It is priced accordingly, and I suspect if it gets purchased it will be for a special occasion of some sort. Either way it's another notch on my way to having 100 items listed.

New fun things are going into the shop this week, I got some shoe clip findings, so black flower shoeclips are listed, and I got some ring bases to make 3-d flower rings. I'm trying for a very broad base of products, so you can bet that if tatting can be attached to it, I'll be doing it! :-) Hopefully some of my ideas will be original and unique.

You won't hear from me tomorrow(unless it's before I leave), but I will be going down to Portland for the day to the IOLI convention. Sandy from the guild is taking me along for the ride and we will be taking a class on clunies from Mimi Dillman. I will of course take copious amounts of photographs, and plaster them all here on the blog..............oh, and speaking of tatting conventions, guess who is going to Palmetto????? NOT ME!!! (pout, sniffle). Can't afford the plane ride, (it's too far to walk...) and hubby is out of vacation time anyways. But my Mama will be there! SO all you tatters better giver her a nice welcome for me, and tell her how you know me. Her name is Karrieann, and she resides in Toccoa.

Modeling....

Yesterday brought some welcome time to work on various tatting projects. I have this new goal to get to 100 listings...Bhaahaaaaahah.


Anyways, just a little extra work in the etsy department has paid dividends in sales. So while I was all dolled up for a wedding we had attended that afternoon, I took a few pics of me modeling jewelry. I have a custom order possibility from this yellow necklace you see me wearing, I'll fill you in on the details if it pans out.


Today I hope to let Dr. Vonthreadmore bust into the new dyes we aquired. That of course entails much winding of skeins, but it will have to wait until after kiddos bedtime as we are currently enjoying our kiddie pool in the backyard.

God Bless Wireless Internet.

Amen.


Oh, and since I have added a new look to the blog, I would appreciate any feedback on compatability/readability issues. Feel free to let me know if you love it or hate it. Well, maybe not if you hate it. :-)

Another HDT question...

I've had a thought to dye some matching solids when I do new varigated/multicolored threads. Are any of you interested in that? And if you were to purchase them, would you prefer to pick and choose them separately, or would you perhaps be interested in a color set that would include a varigated plus a few matching solids offered at a discount as a set?

I really appreciate your feedback as I formulate future dye projects.

And now for something different

Amidst all of my Jewelry making and ETSY listing, you may wonder if I still tat anyting else.....

Well, I do!

Here is a doily or mat I made (mostly on those last two trips to the ER that hubby had. I was smart enough to grab shuttles on the way out the door. He was not seriously injured so I still had wits about me :-)

The thread is HDT by Karey Solomon, and the pattern is from Lynn Morton's Tatting Patterns

Just a few more ends to hide and blocking of course, but it will be soon ready for display.

The Crystal

Here is round one with the crystal! I have used small rounds and drops in the necklace, and large drops in the earrings that match


The thread is one of the HDT solids from recent endeavors. I made it to have a very gentle change in intensity to it, you barely notice but it gives depth and texure.

I went ahead and listed this set, but I think I am going to have to order another batch of this crystal for myself. I've had a little success as of late in the etsy shop, and for some reason that has made it hard for me to keep any of the jewelry lately....I mean, if it has the potential to bring in a little moola..... Oh well. I think I shall soon treat myself to some of my own creations.

Looks like the blog will be getting a new look...

I guess since I'll have to go through the process of re-entering the code for my blog background, I'll finally get around to making it three columns like I have always wanted. Maybe I'll get to that tomorrow :-)

Anyway. The week has been busy with shipping threads (thank you so much to all who purchased!) and a few custom orders. Below is the latest, a request was made for one of my "Petal Perfect" necklaces to be made to look more like a sunflower. Here is the result-

It is currently listed and waiting for it's purchaser. The only real design change I made was to trade out the cabone ring center for a Catherine wheel. I used a HDT of mine for the center, and regular Lizbeth for the rest.

In our last go-round of dye, the Dr. and I did probably 20 different skeins of solid colors in 10 and 20 for my own personal stash. I did some extra large perle cotton too and have been using it for hairclips and the like. And now that the custom orders are out of the way, I'll be working on a very special piece that I have been planning for some time. I went to Shipwreck Beads a few weeks back and came home with Gobs of crystal for some necklace and earring sets that should be all sorts of spectacular, as long as everything goes well of course!

So much for that poll...... :-)

Well, it looks like the poll is not taking votes for me, so thank you all for responding with your input on the post below.....please continue to do so! Dr V appreciates the input for sure.

Time for a Poll!

Dr Vonthreadmore and I have been discussing our future purchases for dyeing, and we would like to know what sizes of HDT people are most interested in. We will only be offering Lizbeth but the cost of the size 10 is something to be dealt with. In order to keep prices reasonable we would need to purchase a large cone of size 10......some 4000 yards I think. So, we need to know if that will be worthwhile to folks. I use a lot of size ten, but if no one else is interested I will just stick to the smaller balls of thread. So if you wouldn't mind filling out our little poll, it will help us choose which threads to purchase and dye in the future. just enter your most used thread sizes, you can make multiple choices :-)

The charm of HDT

One of the wonderful and addictive qualities of HDT (hand dyed thread), is the unique and sometimes unpredictable results. The waiting is the worst part- you mix and wind and sort and soak and paint and wrap..... and don't forget the cleanup......and then you relegate yourself to 24 hours of curing time before you can start to see the results! And THEN you have to wait for it to dry! You'd think the nice summery weather would help that, but I usually dye at night before bed, which means I rinse (and that's a painstaking process too!) at night, so the thread hangs overnight in the cooler temps and sometimes is not dry the next morning. So it's really a two day process. And I spend the whole time fighting the urge to peek and mess with it or rinse it early. Painful I tell you.

But, the results are worth it. Sometimes they are heartbreaking, like the recent rounds of Oops threads, but sometimes the results are better than you'd hope. I've come to accept that there will be a small failure rate, inevitably there will probably be one skein of thread where there is a white spot left, but after much practice there are fewer and fewer.

My favorite results are the intermediate tones of color that happen in the overlap of different dye colors.... they mix in the threads in the most interesting ways. In this last batch of Vineyard at Dusk for instance, i used this color of dye that I got on clearance. It is called "gunmetal" and I tell ya, no matter how long or hard you mix it, it separates a little and does different things. It's unpredictable, a little like me :-) And in this batch, somehow a bit of dusky sky blue snuck in there, and I absolutely love it. (you can see it in the top right corner of the above picture. Inconsistincies are what make Hand dyed thread unique and desireable in my opinion, and I now consider them a welcome part of the process. and commercially available varigated and multicolor threads lack that sort of organic and alive quality. I have balls of lizbeth that I'll probably never use now that I am dyeing, and I still regularly purchase from other dyers. You can see personalities in our color combinations and I prize the threads that others have done.

So, here I am, thread and color and dye addicted. Dr. Vonthreadmore is pleased with my HDT propensities of course, and she thanks you all kindly for your encouragement and praise. She has become more humble as of late, and nothing pleases her more to see her work used and appreciated. We would both love to see the results of your use of our threads!

Krystle

Vineyard at Dusk

I am so thrilled at how this batch turned out! It is beautifully blended, sophisticated and wonderful! Dr. Vonthreadmore worked hard on this batch, and her efforts please me greatly.

I couldn't wait to try it out, so here is an action shot, one of my 3-d flowers. It will end up on a hairclip later this afternoon. Of course I would love to tat all day, but I need to go get a new cell phone as well as go to a birthday party..... so many other things to do! But this thread is going to call me name for sure. All day. I'll hear it from across town beckoning......

If it beckons you as well I have listed a small amount here. I only have Lizbeth 20 available in this batch as of yet.

Gone....

Usually my tatted designs hang out for awhile before leaving me, but this one sold just a few hours after I listed it. Of course I am quite happy about the sale, but the special ones can be hard to let go of.

This was tatted with some of the vintage silk thread that I was given, and some cool beads from Joann. Sometimes Joann comes through for me, like the other day when I stumbled on some Lizbeth there again..... grabbed a few ball s for DR. V who wanted very badly to work on her dye technique. Thankfully for her, most of the OOPS thread is sold and on it's way, she is saving some money to buy a cone of white Lizbeth from Handy Hands. She does have a small batch curing, that should be ready to show off tomorrow.

New Hand dyed thread, and a bargain basement

I've just listed my newest hand dyed thread endeavors in my etsy shop. Click here to see "Blues and Greens" (I wasn't feeling very creative in naming today)

Also, I have added a new section to the shop for various experimental threads and oops threads, click here to visit the thread bargain basement!

Live and Let DYE

Dr. Vonthreadmore has finally had her day. Well, a dye project is really two days of work......

She was up until about 3am this morning, after mixing 24 colors of dye, and dyeing just about every last bit of white thread she could get her paws on.

Pictures of the results are soon to follow, however I am completely exhausted after a full day of rinsing thread. Most of it is drying now and waiting to be wound into the pretty skeins. Dr. Vonthreadmore was kind enough to supply me with many new colors of size 10 which I have been hankering for, but there was a substantial amount of trial and error thread. I think she has traced the problem to a mixing ratio....... either way, some of this thread will soon be liquidated via ETSY so we can get some more and keep refining our technique.

Ta ta from The tatter and the DR!

Inspired.

One big bonus of being asked to do a custom design is that you end up going over several ideas in your head about how to best accomplish it, so I am now knee deep in necklace mode, and this is the first off the shuttles.

I also have plans to remake the bridal necklace in black and do another in white. So I have plenty to keep me busy......not to mention that dye project that Dr. Vonthreadmore has been Dyeing to get to..... lol !

It's away! And a giveaway....

The bridal set has been mailed with much in the way of good wishes for it's safe and timely arrival in Estonia. Above, yours truly is modeling the choker. If you'd like to see the pretty pictures of it before I get around to posting them here, you can go to my etsy shop and check the sold items.

And as far as the giveaway......head over to my facebook page, and check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/krystledawne

Catching up on listings

Today's productive tatting time was spent on the continuation of the custom bridal choker, as well as catching up on ETSY listings. I get crazy before a show and make a bunch of stuff, then it takes me a week or two to get it listed online. :-)

My precious little headband model held still just long enough for a winsome photo of her looking out the window sporting on of her headbands. I included this pic in the listings to show what the headbands look like when worn.

Poor Dr. Vonthreadmore has been on hold for two weeks as I keep not having time for a dye project. I have very little size 10 thread, so I will have to buckle down and let her get busy for the sake of more baby headbands.