There was a local quilt show here in Grand Junction, CO that I learned about and on the list of vendors was “Tied in Knots Tatting”. So I just HAD to go to meet this mystery (to me) tatter.
I WAS BLOWN AWAY by the creativity and large amount of tatting by Dianne Dayhoff from Debeque, Colorado. In addition to that, she was a lovely woman to talk to. She said that she doesn’t work from patterns. But she did admit that she looks at pieces and patterns on the internet and adds components of those designs into her tatting. She just starts to tat and ends up with beautiful work.
The other thing that I was interested in was her prices for her pieces. She asks for and gets a pretty good price for her work….closer to ‘ART’ prices than ‘Craft’ prices. Although not nearly enough for the time and talent she puts into each piece, it was certainly gratifying to see that her work was in the ‘art’ range. I thanked her for promoting tatting as an artform. She said that she prices her doilies at about $7 per square inch. A ca. 12 inch round doily was in the $100+ range (if I remember right). Even her earrings were priced minimally $18.
Dianne says that she vends at one craft show a month, most are in western Colorado close to her hometown of Debeque. The farthest she goes is Durango area because she has relatives/friend there for the excuse to go that far.
She uses beads in her work but just like me, hates them on here shuttle thread. All beads were added-in on joins.
Her work was varied: crosses, doilies, jewelry (she likes to incorporate costume jewelry she finds into her work as components), gift boxes, masks, ankle and wrist bands, etc.
We discussed ‘split rings’…..she does do them, but doesn’t like them (ARGH!) I’d like to hang out with her but Dianne says she is a very singular tatter and has no interest in joining a tatting club (that I would like to start!). I would like the chance to change her mind about split rings!
Dianne does have a FB page but says that she wants to disable it but doesn’t know how. She only sells at shows and lives a relatively ‘social media-free’ lifestyle.