I found a reference to a Polish dish called Fuczki–a sauerkraut dumpling that I have never seen before. Since I like sauerkraut (dad is German, mother is Czech) I googled it looking for a recipe. Then I found myself on a website called Culture.pl in which I was reading about the foods of 10 regions of Poland. At the bottom on the page was a link to “How Polish Women Reclaimed Folk Art by Giving it an Urban Twist” which I followed. The first part of the article was about folk painting. The part I found extremely interesting was towards the bottom of the article under the subtitle of ‘Illegal City Decor’. It included images of buildings in which a lace pattern was painted on. Many of you will recognize this style of lace art as seen on the internet before. But now I have an artist’s name: ‘NeSpoon’ and I learned that according to this Polish site that her work is considered ‘Illegal City Decor’….what we call graffiti. I shall have to do more research on this ‘artist’!!!

https://culture.pl/en/article/how-polish-women-reclaimed-folk-art-by-giving-it-an-urban-twist

THIS IS PART 2 IN MY SHARING OF A SCIENTIFIC SEMINAR I WENT TO RECENTLY TITLED: ‘HEALTH, HAPPINESS & HARMONY; THE HOLISITIC ESSENTIALITY OF HOBBIES’.  Presented by a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Jerry V Walker, III

The objectives of the seminar was: 1. Define what constitutes a hobby; 2. Critically examine how hobbies contribute to our physical, mental, emotional and social health; 3. Develop ideas for how to incorporate a variety of personally-relevant hobbies into our regular routine or lifestyle.

WHAT IS A ‘HOBBY’?
According to Dr. Walker a ‘hobby’ is anything that: 1. Requires effort –you actually ‘do’ something; 2. Requires aptitude--for this one I had to look up the definition of ‘aptitude’ and learned that it is the ‘natural ability to do something‘. I’m not sure I totally agree with the word ‘natural’. That means that one must possess an innate ability to do an activity. As we know with tatting and other fiber-art activities, they have a learning curve both physically and mentally; 3. Is something you do for enjoyment.  Tatting definitely fits this category!

WHAT CONSTITUTES AS ‘HOBBY’? 1. Is an Activity–something physical; 2. Has a Purpose–eg. social, productive, time-filling, etc.; 3. Is Voluntary–ie. it is something you want to do; 4. Holds Significance–ie. is meaningful to the person. (In my case 3 of my 4 grandparents tatted, so for me it is a heritage.); 5. Not a Means to an End–it doesn’t have to have a purpose, you can just enjoy it. The presenter also stated on this topic, that a hobby is not a job. If you make money at it, is it still a hobby? I would suppose that would depend upon how much money you make and how well you live.

https://lacemap.github.io/

I was going back through my old emails looking for a lost one and ‘found’ this link/website. Someone had asked in the original post about places to go in UK to see lace such as museums and this was the reply.

This looks like a good way to share sites such as museums and even shops that may have some level of lace or unique fiber art to see/buy.

Looks like it originally was created by the Dutch. The USA map may need a bit of work….

Yesterday, I went to a fantastic seminar titled “Health, Happiness & Harmony: The Holistic Essentiality of Hobbies”. It was given by Jerry V. Walker, III, PhD, ABPP here at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (where I work). Dr. Walker has quite a background as a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Psychology Services Manager here in Omaha, Nebraska as well a impressive history in the military working as a psychologist. I begged out of going to another meeting to be able to attend this seminar and it was sooooo good. It was a scientific approach to how ‘hobbies’ enrich our lives/health in many ways including physical, mental, emotional and social.

It’s funny to present this information here, because all of us reading/visiting this website/blog are already aware of how tatting enriches our lives. This seminar presented defined ideas why hobbies are important to our lives.

As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Walker said he often asks his patients what hobbies they have, ‘what they do for fun’….and he said that the answer is many times a blank stare. Many people just don’t have hobbies of any kind. I just don’t get that! I personally have several friends that don’t have any interests or hobbies. I am personally worried about one friend who is talking about ‘retiring’ from her job in the near future. She is going to go ‘stir-crazy’ when she actually does retire. Fortunately she has had some surgeries in the recent past that have given her a glimpse into what being home full-time might mean to her daily life. Yet, she still won’t find/create a hobby or interest. I get the impression many times that she looks upon my hobbies and activities with disdain, probably because she just can’t understand the motivation of having a hobby/interest. I try not to force my interests upon her or any of my other friends, trying not to alienate myself from them because I have such an active life interests outside of my full-time work obligations.

The other thing that I have been doing since I have gotten back from the IOLI Convention (in August) is playing around in my enameling studio. I sold alot of shuttles at Convention and this gave me the impetus to make new ones. It seems that every time that I go back to enameling I make shuttles that are quite different in design style to the previous ones I have made. I guess I keep evolving my style.

The new style that I have adopted is the use of decals designed for use on glass and ceramics. Since enamel IS glass, these work perfectly for me to enhance my shuttles. I wish I had painting skills, but I don’t so this the best I can do.

The decals are permanently fused into/on the enamel/glass surface. They will not come/rub off.

I’ve had a lot of fun finding and using various decals. I have: black animals-dogs and cats, sugar-skull cats, flowers, snowflakes;, birds, bees, ladybugs, butterflies, and even a motorcycle.

Check them out on my Etsy shop at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheShuttleSmith?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Well….2019 has been quite a year! Since getting world that I would be teaching at the 2019 IOLI Convention in August in Spokane, WA, I have been busy in various ways: 1. Designing classes for the convention and then preparing class materials; 2. finishing a book that I had a good start on and with the help of Diana Howe’s tatting skill was able to get published (Illusions of 3-D in Split Ring Tatting); 3. Designing and laying out a second book that came from inspiration of the classes that I was teaching at Convention (Bounty of Tatted Delights). 4. prepping my books and enameled tatting shuttles to sell at Convention.

As soon as I got to Convention (which was incredible!) I realized how much time I had devoted to the above endeavors and decided that when I got home things would be a bit different…I wouldn’t be pushing myself as much (at least for a while). I was unhappy about having to publish the Bounty of Tatted Delights book under an ISBN number that wasn’t mine so I ‘unpublished’ it when I got home. I JUST republished it as of November 30th, 2019 so that burden is no longer hanging over my head.

All my books are now available on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheShuttleSmith

So, I’ve been busy in the last year. It started over 15 months ago in 2018 when I was asked to tatting teach at the 2019 IOLI Convention. This is something that I relish, not only for the fact that I get to go to the convention but mostly because it gives me a reason to get ‘the creative juices flowing’. Patti Duff, the local arrangements coordinator for the convention and I put our heads together and came up with a plan for the two classes. One would be a series of 4 different projects, a new one each of the four days of classes. It was titled ‘Modern Tatting for Modern Tatters’. Classes included: 1. Karen’s Keltic Tatting–I’ve never seen anyone else design Celtic designs like mine– my approach is very simple; 2. 3-D Split Ring Tatted Boxes; 3. Mignonnette Pouch; 4. Greek Key Design utilizing 2 methods in Split Ring Tatting.

Class Number Two was based upon a ‘Cornucopia’ design that I ‘dusted-off’ from an old workshop I taught it at in 2003. I called the class “A Bounty of Tatted Delights” for several reasons: 1. a cornucopia represents ‘bounty’; 2. the host state of Washington is the leading producer of many fruits and vegetables. The cornucopia was unique in that it utilized ‘Interlocking Ring’ and ‘Interlocking Chains’ to give it a dimensional effect (hopefully) reminiscent of a basket.

In addition to the cornucopia, the class included the ‘Spokane Beauty Apple’ series in Split Ring Tatting. The convention was held in Spokane, WA and there really is a Spokane Beauty Apple variety. Using this design series I was able to introduce a new technical level to Split Ring Tatting by manipulating multiple colors of thread. I call the technique ‘Painting with Thread in Tatting’.  

In addition to the Spokane Beauty Apple, we also tatted a three-dimensional ‘grape’ or ‘cherry’ as well as a three-dimensional ‘hop cone’. All to celebrate Washington state’s rich agricultural offerings. (I’m not sure where my photo of the grape is….)  

PS. I’m a fan of hoppy and dark beers.

Watch for the Walla Walla Sweet (Tatted) Onion in Painting with Thread Technique. The Walla Walla Sweet Lacers were the co-hosts (along with the Shuttlebirds Tatting Guild) of the convention. I’m still typing out the pattern–each ring has it’s own pattern!

Well, since it’s International Tatting Day, I will celebrate it by announcing that I have a new tatting book published. It’s number 8 in my ‘Fun with Split Ring Tatting’ series. It’s titled “Illusions of 3-D in Split Ring Tatting”. You’ll either ‘love’ or ‘hate’ the designs. I had a lot of fun creating these. I love the way color and geometry can trick your eye into seeing something flat as being three-dimensional.
Right now they are only available on Amazon….

Yep! I just realized that my last web post here on The ShuttleSmith website was in 2017!  Yikes! 

I have been busy with The ShuttleSmith projects in the last year, you just haven’t seen any of it here.

I have been occasionally posting to my TheShuttleSmith Facebook page, probably because it’s a bit easier to do so and because I had lost the address/password to my website at work when I had to get a new computer.  Actually it was two new computers because they (my employer) said my computer(s) were compromised with a virus.  They pointed to my attempts to go to Georgia Seitz’s pages, which when I try to go there comes up as blocked by the companies software.  I told them ‘yes, I had tried to go to that website’ but that I didn’t understand why it was blocked.  Anybody have this same issue with Georgia Seitz’s website????  But I digress….It was due to this blockage and thus suspected virus alarm that my employer gave me a new computer…which in turn wiped out all my bookmarks and stored passwords…which is why I couldn’t get into my WordPress software to create blog posts as easily.

What I’ve been doing in 2018 synopsis (tatting related):

I have been working on book number 8 in my ‘Fun with Split Ring Tatting’ series.  It seems to me that these books are what keep the spark in my tatting world.  I just love every step of the creative process.  I originally titled this book ‘Mathematical Designs in SRT’ but now that I am about 90% done with it, I think it will be called ‘3-D Illusions in SRT’.  It will be one of those books that you will either fall in love with the uniqueness of the designs or totally hate…but I’m going to publish it anyway.  More about this book and designs in upcoming blog posts.

I have been working with a very talented tatter (Diana Howe) to tat many of my designs into real thread because I just don’t have the time anymore to keep up with tatting everything in my books myself.  (Keep in mind that I work full-time.)  More about my relationship with Diana in upcoming blog posts.  I may also post about my unique full-time job.

Last year (2017) my time was totally devoted to moving (physically) from one house to another.  I didn’t even get around to getting a real vacation.  This year was different.

• My husband and I went to Grand Junction, Colorado for a ski trip in January.  We took the Amtrak train there and back.  The train offers me a whole day to relax and tat while traveling.
• I had two weeks to travel in July via motorcycle to/from Colorado.  Of course I had my tatting with me, even while traveling via motorcycle.  Don’t you just love how portable tatting is!?
• In September, I traveled (alone) to Georgia via motorcycle to teach at/attend the Palmetto Tatters Workshop.  I had two weeks to get there and back and camped along the way as much as possible.  I am especially happy when I can put several passions together (motorcycling, traveling/camping, & tatting).  More about my (fantastic!) trip to Palmetto in upcoming blog posts.
• In October, my husband & I traveled again by train to CO to relax and motorcycle in the area for one week. (We have motorcycles stashed there.)

I still have a shop on Etsy.com where I sell my books and enameled tatting shuttles (shop name: TheShuttleSmith).  I will be spending more time in the near future updating my Etsy shop, probably with more/new shuttles & all my books.  More about my Etsy listings in upcoming blog posts.  You will probably see postings about how I create my enameled shuttles too.

I just recently was given a huge stash of vintage enamel supplies to use in my enameled tatting shuttle production business.  I just got them organized so that I can use them.  I am looking forward to experimenting and using them in the very near future.  Enameling gives me a different creative outlet to experiment with using ‘color’ and ‘enameling techniques’.  So look for upcoming blog posts on new enameled tatting shuttles and enameling techniques. You will probably see postings about how I create my enameled shuttles too.

I have been asked to teach 2 tatting classes (plus one short Teneriffe Lace class) at the upcoming 2019 IOLI Convention in Spokane, Washington.  So I spent some time this summer working with Patti Duff, the Convention Tatting Teacher Coordinator to design two unique tatting classes:

• Class #1 is titled ‘Modern Tatting for Modern Tatters‘ and will introduce 4 very different class projects in the four days of classes. 
• Class #2 is titled ‘A Bounty of Tatted Delights’.  This class will focus on how the host state of the Convention (Washington) is the producer of many fruits & vegetables.  Thus a whole new book of tatted designs is in the design/planning stages to be published in time for this convention.
• More about my these classes/designs in upcoming blog posts

I’m nicely settled into my new home in Iowa.  Other than mowing the fairly big lawn of a small acreage, the house hasn’t taken up too much of my free time.

So that is what I have been up to so far in 2018.