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.)
Although this information does NOT relate to tatting, I thought it was such an exciting resource for bobbin lacemaking that I thought it need to be shared. (We are all sisters in the lacemaking world!)
This was posted in a post on ‘lace@arachne.com’ a very old list serve resource that I have been a part of for several decades. It is about a 3 year long bobbin lace project between 6 different countries. The project was named BOBBIN LACEE (“Building Opportunities with boBBins to Innovate the Network of Lace Associations Creating Education and Employment”). They have a website with ‘Learning Materials’ in English that is a treasure trove of techniques, history and collaboration.
The following is what was posted by one of the collaborators.
“Finally I can share with you the work that we have been doing during athree year long European project. I have been so busy, that I can’tremember if I ever told you about it! Sorry if I didn’t!As a resume: 6 European countries have participated in this very demanding project: Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Czech Republic and Spain. I belong to the Spanish staff team. Each country needed to create a group of 5 teachers and 35 learners to be able to teach them in their own country the type of lace they decided to choose. Each country also had to learn and to teach their learners the laces from the other 5 countries. Each country had to prepare a teaching workbook, which is now available for anybody whois interested. Do not hesitate in having a look at the material the 6 countries have prepared (you can find it in our webpage: https://bobbinlacee.eu/ under “Learning material”. It is also downloadable, if you are interested) and read the resumes of every transnational meeting. The project also included travelling to the partner countries to learn their methods, but unfortunately, we could only enjoy of half of the programmed trips. The rest had to be taught online to a very numerous group (around 60 people)., which was a great challenge, as there was no previous experience in this type of teaching. Language barriers were also enormous,as most lacemakers of the participating countries did not speak English, which was our common communicating language. So, please enjoy surfing our webpage, which will only be available untilthe end of the summer 2022. Greetings from Antje González, in Spain”
I have been sorting through all my stuff, getting ready for a move from a big house (lots of space/storage) in Iowa to a smaller house (half the space) in Colorado. In the process, I found two more cases that would be great to display a tatting shuttle collection (or anything else small). I purchased the two ‘Glass-Brass-Mirror’ Display cases in Mexico in the early 80’s. I had used them to display baby items in my nursery when my kids were born (27-31 years ago). It wasn’t until just now when I pulled them out of the attic that I realized they would have been perfect for my tatting shuttle collection and other fiber-art treasures. (I recently purchased a big stand-alone display case that I am anxious to move to my new house and get set up!!).
The Tatting Corner shop in Indiana is hosting the first ever TATTING Cruise this coming March, 2022.
The prices are quite reasonable starting at $904.74 (double accupancy). That is includes 8 nights of ‘lodging’ and 7 full days of either exploring Caribbean ports or tatting workshops. The 3 days of Tat Sea Tatting Workshops are only on days that the ship is not in a port called ‘at sea days’. What a great way to fill in the time by learning new tatting techniques or patterns. I understand that we may also have access to a room in the evenings to ‘hang-out’ and tat with each other. The cost of the workshops is included with the cruise and I believe that all thread is supplied in a kit. When you consider that all lodging and food is included in the cost, a cruise is a very cost-effective way to travel–about $114 a day. Plus, you can pay for the cruise in monthly installments, thus you don’t have to come up with all the money at one time.
I’m going and teaching!!!! Please do consider coming!! It is going to be sooooooo much fun.
I will be taking part as a vendor at the upcoming IOLI (International Organization of Lace) UnCon21 virtual convention.
I was supposed to be teaching at the real/physical convention that was going to be in Reno, Nevada, but it was canceled early in 2021 due to Covid concerns. That’s the bad news.
The good news—the IOLI committee/board did a fantastic job of organizing an ‘Un’ ‘Convention’ which is a virtual/Zoom approach to allowing lacemakers from around the world to ‘gather’, if not physically, but virtually via the computer. The UnCon21 is the last week of July.
There are over 600 participants registered. There are many classes (all full) with teachers from around the world. I myself am registered to attend a Teneriffe Lace class with Elizabeth Horta Corea from Brazil. Elizabeth is a big promoter of Teneriffe/Sol Lace and is teaching how to use ‘slotted looms’ to create the lace and then how to stitch/sew the motifs together to create the lace.
All throughout UnCon21, registered participants have the opportunity to ‘Zoom’ into many scheduled talks about lace topics. Every morning, there will be a museum tour of lace collections from museums around the world.
Another addition to UnCon21 is the ‘Virtual Vendor Hall’. I am participating as a virtual vendor and have a ‘Trunk Show’ on Tuesday, July 27, 6:30 to 7:30 PDT. During my trunk show I will show my wares: my Fun with Split Ring Tatting series of books (9 to this point) as well as my glass/enameled tatting shuttles and thread holders. I will also be debuting my latest/future direction of Teneriffe/Sol Lace Kits. I have some very cool future looms to launch in the future….but come by my Trunk Show to catch a sneak peak of what I’m doing.
All these activities are available free of charge to all IOLI members who have registered for the week-long UnCon21.
The above YouTube video was produced to help me participate in the UnCon21 Virtual Vendor Hall. I’m pretty happy with how it came out.
I want to inform those of you who read this blog WHY you can’t submit comments. The reason is, that in the past, I have gotten hundreds (if not thousands) of inappropriate ‘comments’ from people that have no interest in tatting, lace or anything that I post.
If anyone knows of a way I can change this (I’m not at all social media savvy), let me know—I would love to hear from others.
As of June 1st I am officially retired from my career as an Electron Microscopy Technologist (with side jobs as an Neuropathology Technologist). I started my career at Creighton University (Omaha, NE) and was there for 27 years until it was obvious that my job wouldn’t be viable for much longer. So I ‘jumped ship’ to Nebraska Medicine/Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center where I worked for almost 12 years. My wonderful husband suggested that I retire early. I was planning on retiring at the end of the year, but Jerry encouraged me to bump up the date. So for 2+ months I was feverishly training my successor. It appears that she is the perfect candidate for the job and is excited about making it a career for herself.
To celebrate my retirement, Jerry and I immediately left for a 2500+ mile trip on our new (to us in 2020) motorcycles. We traveled down the Mississippi River Valley from Iowa to Louisiana where we explored the bayou/cajun region. Jerry ‘worked-from-home’ there for one week. We enjoyed the swamps, marsh, bayous, and the food (Cajun and seafood). I choose Louisiana to travel to because it WAS the only state that I had not motorcycled in. Now I can say that I have ridden a motorcycle in all fifty states!
Me and a few of my co-workers–impromptu going-away/happy retirement party. Andrea, my replacement is in the checkered shirt.Some of my besties: Thanh (who I worked with in the Neuropathology Lab), Me, Lisa and Mike (long-time co-workers from our Creighton Univ. days)Me working at my ultramicrotome–an instrument I spent a large amount of time at.
My tools for ultramicrotomy work: I make ultrathin slices (sections) of the black material (human kidney tissue) in the yellow cylinder (the block) and put the slices on the copper grids. One of my tools is an eyelash attached to a handle as well as the razor blade.
Me and my Transmission Electron Microscope.This is the final product of my work…an image of a slice (section) of human tissue (in this case kidney). The images go to a pathologist (MD) who makes a diagnosis of disease typeMy office was adorned in lace.
In the small town that is my original hometown (Wisner, Nebraska) is an antique store in one of the main street storefronts. Every so often I stop in on my way to visit my parents, if/when it is open and I have the time. This particular antique store has some very good pieces and the proprietor usually has some thread spool cabinets. I really want to buy one but am waiting for ‘just the right one’—which hopefully will have the name of a thread that I know and love.
Price: $295. ‘FRUIT’ ‘OF THE’ ‘BRADER’.Price: $225. Lovely smooth wood finish.Price: $225. Needs to be refinished–varnish is bubbled.
