{"id":41,"date":"2014-02-01T05:05:51","date_gmt":"2014-02-01T05:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/?page_id=41"},"modified":"2015-11-27T19:42:42","modified_gmt":"2015-11-27T19:42:42","slug":"about-the-shuttlesmith","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/about-the-shuttlesmith\/","title":{"rendered":"About The ShuttleSmith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kkb<\/a>The ShuttleSmith<\/strong> <\/em>is really me, Karen Bovard<\/span>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0have been tatting since I was in high school.\u00a0 Born a true honest-to-goodness ‘Farmer’s Daughter’\u00a0I grew up on a farm in northeast Nebraska (Wisner, Pilger to be more precise).\u00a0 In rural Nebraska\u00a0I grew up sewing and doing every fiber artform that I could get my hands on including knitting, crochet, embroidery, macrame, Hardanger.\u00a0 I was a long-time fan\/member of 4-H and attribute alot of personal accomplishments to my experiences in 4-H.<\/span> I\u00a0learned to tat from\u00a0my grandmother in\u00a0my\u00a0teens and later found out that\u00a0my other grandparents had also tatted. \u00a0 Tatting in a rural area is actually quite common.\u00a0 Tatting is cheap because it does not require unique or costly materials to do.\u00a0 It was truly a poor-man’s lace. \u00a0 For many years\u00a0I thought that\u00a0me and my\u00a0grandparents were the only ones to tat until\u00a0I married and moved to the big city of Omaha (where I still reside).\u00a0\u00a0I discovered a newly-formed tatting club (The ShuttleBugs Tatting Club of Omaha)\u00a0and then started teaching how-to-tat locally.\u00a0 Due to a fellow club members persistence at finding anything\/everything to do with tatting (Thanks Cindy Costantinou),\u00a0I discovered a whole world of tatting materials, books, publications, etc.\u00a0 Up to that point all\u00a0I had were a few Workbaskets and DMC pattern books, 2 shuttles (Boye plastic) and one ball of white thread (size 70).\u00a0\u00a0I soon found a niche in studying tatting techiques beyond basic tatting and created a tatted motorcycle to put those skills into practice.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Within the first couple years of The ShuttleBugs existence, the club unwittingly agreed to host a tatting workshop.\u00a0 It seemed only natural that\u00a0I take on the task of the advanced tatting workshop portion due to my interest in anything technique-related.\u00a0\u00a0 We were astounded by the success of the workshop and had many accomplished tatters come from around the country to a tiny town’s (ca. 50 population) opera house in SE Nebraska.\u00a0\u00a0 We were so ‘jazzed’ by the outcome that we decided to host another workshop (this time without a beginning class) the next year.\u00a0 Again I was in my glory designing classes and patterns for the advanced workshop.\u00a0 We did this for 3 years in a row—at the last workshop we even had\u00a0Toshiko Takashima\u00a0from Japan and two travelling companions.\u00a0\u00a0Toshika is the originator\/author of Japanese Hook Tatting.\u00a0\u00a0 I am one of few Americans who purchased her book and a set of tatting needle\/hooks direct from her!<\/span><\/div>\n
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In later years I\u00a0used my tatting technique skills to teaching at national needlework shows.\u00a0 I had heard that tatting and other lace-making forms were included in the shows and proposed my own classes.\u00a0 The first year (and last!) that I taught at the Spirit of Cross Stitch Shows, there was enough interest in tatting and lacemaking to have a beginning class in needle tatting, shuttle tatting and an advanced tatting class.\u00a0 However, this needlework show company went out of business and another came into being—Creative Arts & Teaching Show (CATS).\u00a0\u00a0 For 6 or more years I went on the nationwide show circuit teaching tatting, needlelace and other needlework technique classes.\u00a0 I was trying hard to bring needleworkers into the tatting\/lacemaking world.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
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Some of you may remember me as The ShuttleSmith Sterling Silver Tatting Shuttle<\/span> manufacturer.\u00a0 This is where I coined my company name.\u00a0 I\u00a0had been\u00a0starting to collect shuttles from antique stores and was amazed at the inflating prices of shuttles, especially silver shuttles.\u00a0 I thought to myself that there can’t be that much silver in them and set out to learn silversmithing\/jewelry making to make my own.\u00a0 After a fairly poor introductory silversmithing class at the local community college non-credit courses, I started collecting tools for a home studio and self-taught myself how to create sterling silver tatting shuttles.\u00a0 Within a short time, I added a line of celtic-knotwork embellished silver shuttles that were very popular.\u00a0 This was a fairly success venture (however, not enough to quit my day-job though<\/em>) until I saturated the market.\u00a0 I took a year off from the business and when I went back I found out the company that etched my celtic designs into the silver (ie my best-selling shuttles) went out of business.\u00a0 After some research, I found out that it would be a costly process to find a new supplier.\u00a0 So I retired from silver shuttle making.\u00a0\u00a0 However, I still have some silver left and have toyed around with the prospect of creating a few more someday.<\/span><\/div>\n
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I have taught advanced and beginning tatting (both shuttle and needle) nationwide.\u00a0 But have been quite busy in the last many years with my family and my new venture of writing tatting books (Fun with Split Ring Tatting<\/span> & MORE Fun with Split Ring Tatting<\/span><\/em><\/strong>) and in the process establishing myself as The ShuttleSmith Publishing Company<\/span>.\u00a0 I am almost as proud of the fact that I researched and maneuvered myself successfully into the world of self-publishing as I am about the book itself.\u00a0 I have created a separate website in which I have published a series of articles under the subject title of\u00a0 “Cost-Effective Desk-top Publishing for a Niche-Market Book”. It is my hope that other wanna-be authors can learn from my experience to get their own niche-market book(s) published.\u00a0 Look for a link to this site somewhere on this website.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
I consider tatting, especially advanced tatting techniques to be my main specialty.\u00a0 With my silver shuttles, I had an excuse to go to IOLI Conventions to sell my silver creations.\u00a0 It was there and through a regional lace guild (The StoneHouse Lacers\/Sunflower Lacers) that I learned needle-related lacemaking techniques.\u00a0 It seemed to bring my earlier life of sewing and embroidery back full circle to a needle.\u00a0 In addition to\u00a0tatting I\u00a0specialize in needle-related lacemaking techniques including:\u00a0 Carrickmacross Lace, Tenerife\/Nanduti Lace, Romanian Point Lace, Casalguidi, Huck Embroidery, Chicken-scratch embroidery, Surface embroidery, Ribbon-work, & Smocking.\u00a0 I have staunchly stayed away from 3 artforms:\u00a0 beading, bobbin lace, and quilting.\u00a0 The reason is simple, I know I would enjoy all of these artforms….but I know enough about them to realize that they require a large monetary and time commitment to be able to comfortably do them.<\/span><\/div>\n
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On a non-fiber art note, I am a divorcee with two grown children who was recently remarried (August, 2013). \u00a0 My life includes 3 cats.\u00a0 I work full-time as an Electron Microscopy Technologist and as a Neuropathology Technologistat the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.\u00a0 For many years (decades!) I was a devoted employee of Creighton University.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\"Cycle<\/a>
My tatted motorcycle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"DSCN0945\"<\/a>
My ‘real’ motorcycle and tent–on our way to a tatting event (Palmetto Tat Days, 2014)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Taking Tatting Technique Junkie<\/b><\/i> to the Next Level<\/span><\/div>\n
My other passion in life is motorcycling * <\/b>(NO! I am not one of those tattooed, hard-core types!)<\/i>. At some point I got the weird idea of putting my Tatting Technique Junkie skills to a test by creating a Tatted Motorcycle. I started with a picture of a motorcycle that I liked (a Triumph) and then started creating tatted ‘parts’. I did tat each part separately and combined them together onto a piece of linen cloth, pulling the thread ends to the back of the cloth to finish it. Most of the parts are tatted using fairly recognizable Tatting Techniques (Split Ring, Pearl) with the exception of the seat. The technique I used for the seat I believe to be original. I started with a writtern (no example) description from Anne Dyer’s To Boldly Go where No Shuttle Has Gone Before<\/i><\/b> and created my version of her directions (no photo or example). At some other point in time I tatted something totally different using these same instructions….thus either the motorcycle seat Tatted Technique is original to me or the other one is. * <\/b> (Sorry but the photography of the tatted motorcycle is less than ideal. Plus black thread just doesn’t show very well the details of the stitches in photographed\/scanned work. The background cloth color is a sage\/blue green. It seem the best choice to show off all the color components including the grey thread I used for the ‘chrome’ parts.)<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ShuttleSmith is really me, Karen Bovard. I\u00a0have been tatting since I was in high school.\u00a0 Born a true honest-to-goodness ‘Farmer’s Daughter’\u00a0I grew up on a farm in northeast Nebraska (Wisner, Pilger to be more precise).\u00a0 In rural Nebraska\u00a0I grew up sewing and doing every fiber artform that I could get my hands on including … Continue reading About The ShuttleSmith<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2052,"href":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41\/revisions\/2052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivalarchitecture.com\/shuttlesmithblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}