With Spring here and Summer just around the corner, I thought I would showcase some of my The ShuttleSmith’s Glass/Enameled Tatting Shuttles that feature bee and ladybug designs.

I don’t think that I have any of these styles for sale in my Etsy shop (TheShuttleSmith) currently but if you want one, I can custom make them for you–you choose the design, color, etc.

Contact me at: k.bovard@yahoo.com or call: 402-960-7370 (Mountain Time Zone)

Last year, I pulled out a unique thread from my collection, using it for a project other than tatting and was wondering what size/kind of thread it was. Then I notice that the label had either yards or meters per weight of the ball printed on it. This started my ‘Thread Size Comparison’ Quest that I continue to this day. This was the original chart that I was somehow able to create to show my quantitative/scientific analysis of thread size based upon length (yards or meters) per weight. I chose to illustrate my charts with YARDS per 50 GRAMS.

The above chart has 54 threads charted but on my current Excel spreadsheet I have 107 threads charted. Threads included are crochet cottons, perle/pearl cottons, and other threads commonly used in tatting. Some are now longer available, but were pulled out of my stash of threads that I have from 40+ years of tatting and buying threads.

My problem with showing the full-range of threads I have in my spreadsheet are that I don’t know how to graphically publish them–I’m fairly Excel ignorant. I can figure out how to put the threads and numbers (yards/50 grams) into my chart, but can’t figure out how to export them into a usable graph. Can anybody help me with that? If so contact me at: k.bovard@yahoo.com or call: 402-960-7370 (I’m in Mountain Time Zone).

It’s really interesting to see how threads that we use relate to thread sizes of other manufacturers. The 20’s are fairly consistent/in the same size range but the 80’s are statistically different size-wise.

I use this chart to determine unique threads/fibers I find in such places as high-end yarn shops (specifically Personal Threads in Omaha, NE). Just recently I found & bought a skein of Indian silk lace-weight thread that I’m going to use for a new fiber-art venture I’m working on: Teneriffe Lace (More to come on that project.) The label said the skein was 800 yards per 100 grams. Thus, the thread/yarn is in the 400 yards/50 grams range and is very similar to Lizbeth 20 (both are slightly on the thicker-side of the 20’s range).

When I was going through my own website(s) (yes, I have several!) I realized that my ‘Karen’s Keltic Tatting’ page had alot of views.  Thus I started thinking about how I really haven’t showcased my form of Celtic Tatting here. 

I call my version of Celtic Tatting:  Karen’s Keltic Tatting.   It is based off those ‘tattoo necklaces’ that were popular in the 90’s and are enjoying a comeback a little bit lately.  I just did a Google search and found that you can buy a simple one from Spencer’s. (Spenser’s was my favorite store to shop in when I was growing up and lucky enough to get to go shopping at a mall in Omaha.) 

Probably 10-15 years ago, I was looking at my tattoo necklace collection and realized that ‘it was tatting!’  and thus Karen’s Keltic Tatting was born!

I have more designs sketched out that need to be tatted up.  This form of design work is alot more time-consuming than my Split Ring Tatting designs.  These Karen’s Keltic Tatting designs require alot more ‘trial & error’ to get right.

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.

A while back I was gifted by a cousin-in-law with this antique abalone tatting shuttle. My CIL is a professional jeweler in Iowa City, Iowa (She is my idol–I want to be a jeweler when I grow up!) When I pressed her about where this shuttle came from she said that it was in the jewelry shop’s storage items from estate purchases and buying out other jewelry stores stock. She could not shed any more light on the provenance of this beauty.

I was really intrigued by the fact that it was still attached to the original packaging material. I’m assuming that the missing portion of the cardboard base was where the price of the shuttle was. I’m bummed that this historical detail is missing.

The other unique thing about this abalone tatting shuttle is the fact that is includes a steel point/pick that is attached/riveted to the back blade of the shuttle.

After going on the first ever Tat Sea 2022 Tatting Cruise, I (and I think everyone else) was inspired by one of the cruise-goer’s beautiful tatted/beaded necklaces and earrings.  I will have to profess that I hate working with beads (especially on my shuttle thread) but now really want some tatted, glizty jewelry.  

I think this might be the thread for me.  It tats up quite well.  You have to be a bit careful when making joins that you grab all of the thread and not just a portion to bring up through the picot join as it easily splits.  But even though I tat quite tightly (stitch & ring tension), the rings closed quite nicely for me.

I found this thread in a quilt shop in Grand Junction, CO.

I need to go back and buy the silver and gold ones.

I found these ‘Magic Pins’ in a quilt shop here in my new hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado.  I am very hopeful that they will help prevent the hurts my right hand, middle finger gets when pushing in regular pins to a cardboard base to block my tatting.  Last time I blocked about a dozen pieces and my finger hurt for over a week. My husband forbade me showing off my owwie to everyone (it was my middle finger!). Sometimes I wear a thimble when pushing in pins to block my tatting. But it seems that the thimble impedes my progress a bit, especially when using a large number of pins.

Then I went to the Quilt Show here in Grand Junction, CO and found these ‘Pretty Pins’. I think that these later pins might be kinder to my finger than the ‘Magic Pins’. But the heads may get in the way of one another if the piece I’m blocking needs a whole bunch of pins close together.

I was at Walmart the other day and noticed these tweezers. The ‘Point Tweezers’ would work great for opening-closed-rings. I have no use for the ‘slant’ ones in my work. I didn’t buy them because I already have tweezers in my tatting bag that I love and use (all too frequently) for repairing a mistake. (I shall have to take a pictures of the tweezers I use for a future entry.)