Design Challenge

Design Challenge 5

2009-07-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

So many people were having fun with the last challenge that it was left up for a long time. Here's another one along the same lines. Just like roses are a popular motif in tatting, so are daisies. Daisies are just rings joined in a circle. The rings can be any size you like with any number of picots you like. The drawing is shown with one picot, but you can use whatever you want.

The challenge is like the last one, take the basic daisy and turn it into something else, a snowflake, a square, a bookmark, teapot, necklace or whatever you like. When you have completed your design, let me know and I'll add it here along with a link back to your blog, web page or whatever public page you have. (I can't link to Yahoo Group pages.)

Wanda used the daisy as a centre for this very charming snowflake. It came out looking like she imagined it would, but it is kind of a pain to make, with a lot of reversing work. On the second, two color one she tried the method for making chains of NOT reversing but also not flipping the stitch and it's not quite so persnickety a pattern this way. Now she's thinking of trying this with beads maybe for her Christmas season snowflake.

Design Challenge 4

2009-01-28T20:33:00.000-08:00

Here is a different kind of design challenge. Take a simple rose and use it as a base for something bigger, like a snowflake, heart, square, bookmark or whatever you want. What can you make based on a rose? Here's a pattern for a rose base with either 6 petals or 8 petals, you can use a different number of petals if you want.

What can you come up with that has a rose in it?

Patty Dowden took the challenge and tatted a rose in the centre of a heart. Not being overly fond of solid rose centers, she did make multiple consecutive rows but with spaces between some of the rows. Then the heart didn't turn out flat, but she likes it anyway. Very interesting. It will be fun to see what others make with a rose centre.

Linda Davies used a rose centre to created a Gold Medal for the tatting Olympics. There are lots of picots on the rose to make it very frilly. The interlaced edging was her first attempt at celtic tatting. Marty did something really unexpected and used the rose base to create a shamrock. What a delightful idea! Not only is it thinking outside the box, it creates something very seasonal for St Patrick's day. Martha says the rose motif is one of her favorites, and she has been using it in other pieces for years. After the challenge was issued, she have now made a creamer and sugar bowl to go with a previous teapot design. Tea anyone?
Ellyane used the rose as a centre for this lovely doily. By using a different colour for the core thread there is just a tiny hint of the red in the rose that acrries out into the surrounding clovers. The longer outer chains are forming arches that mimic the central rose. Very nice.

Jeff was originally going to make the rose and add enough rows to make motif the same size as the Teneriffe centre of his hexagon. Then he was going to use the outer rows of the hexagon for this motif. However, things didn't work out quite like he had expected and he ended up making up the whole thing. It's simply gorgeous.

Vicki shared with you a lavender sachet made with 2 simple rosettes put together using long picots on the outside round. All of the beads are added afterwards, although beaded picots would work just as well. The lavender is wrapped in cloth or tissue paper and stuck in it before it is closed off. An amulet bag can be made in the same way.

Carolyn used the rose to create a lovely snowflake

Neophyte has a late entry of a doily she created using a rose motif from the Big Book of Tatting. While she didn't design the motif, she did design the doily and put a huge amount of work into it.

Design Challenge 3

2008-10-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here is something totally different to play around with. Recently Connie posted a picture of lace and asked if it was crochet or tatting. It's obviously a trick question, because it's crochet intended to look like tatting. So here's a new challenge. see if you can make this a crochet design, in tatting.

Patty has taken up the challenge and this is her tatted angel. Look at the details from the crystal beads to the clunies on the wing, and the zigzag belt. Lots of different techniques have been used.

Design Challenge 2

2008-08-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

There was such and amazing variety of things created from the last image, so here's another one to try.

Working from either the black or the peach, create a motif from this image. The challenge is open to anyone, just use your imagination and turn it into tatting, a snowflake, a doily, a pendant or whatever you like. Then let me know where you've posted your picture and I'll add it here.

Heather posted her version of the challenge snowflake and included the pattern on her blog.

Marty did her first version with extra long picots wound around a dowel, but it just didn't work. The second version made with DMC size 80 plain red on one shuttle and a red variegated on the other shuttle and lots of beads was a step in the right direction but it didn't quite work either. The third version made with yellow size 30 DMC Cebelia has lock chains to separate the repeats so they wouldn't try to curve. A few other minor changes in ds counts and picot size resulted in her finished design. The knobbies around the edge are an embellishment. We knew they were planned.

After some thought Marty had to tweak it a little and her 3rd try is beautiful. She did it again in red and green variegated DMC size 80 tatting thread and attached it to a Christmas ornament. Here it is attached top and bottom, but most of the pattern is invisible. The next picture shows what it would look like on the side. I like the side view better. As soon as Marty has her chicken scratches deciphered, the pattern will be available.

This sad thing is my version of DC2. It rumples badly and there is no way that it will lay flat without a major re-work. There's hope for it, but it's one of those designs that will need a lot of tweaking to lay flat. I will re-work it one of these days, right after I get over being obsessive about sparkly suncatcher snowflakes.

Anne created more than just a motif from this design, she created a whole doily that looks like a large snowflake. Yarnplayer commented that it's like a Lace Pie. What a truly amazing piece of work.

A Tatting Challenge

2008-07-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

I challenge you!
Here's a challenge for you. See this image? Use it as a base to design a snowflake. Use either the blue or the white for your outline and see what you can come up with.

This image was originally posted on my personal blog, but since it looks like a number of people want to play, I thought I'd move it to it's own space so that the starting image and what people have done with it can all be in one place. As soon as someone has a piece done, if they let me know where it is I can add it to the page so we can see the different interpretations. Periodically I will add a new image to play with.

Anne took the challenge and designed a beautiful piece based on this image, but she thinks hers looks more like a flower. Anne has another version she's working on too, but it has to wait until her dragon's wings are completed.Here is Anne's second version of the snowflake using Oren Bayan size 50 and the colour variations worked out perfectly.
Marty has her interpretation done. Her first attempt had many points of different shapes, then she ran out of thread. After reloading her shuttles she came up with a successful snowflake.

Wally looked at it and saw butterflies (so did I). She has show a picture of her version, but she only did 5 points because she ran out of thread.

Ellen joins the challenge with her version of the snowflake made with dimpled rings.

My first simple version after several rough starts, measures 2 inches across done in size 30 thread.
Iris was looking through her notebook while she was in Matera and found a sample of traditional tatting she was working on which she combined with the challenge image. This gorgeous elegant doily is the result. Joy has worked with the white area of the image to create this beauty. I think working with the white area is much harder especially with this image that has a large blue centre. Joy has the right idea though, this will make an excellent picture frame of fridge magnet.