Success at Last!

Interlocking Rings!

Plus -  Vicary Mansion event coming up this weekend.

I FINALLY was able to join the first and last rings correctly on these interlocking rings!  

I was quite envious when Frivole (see link below) and others were successfully joining their first and last rings!   And, of course, Frivole went even farther in designing a couple of motifs using the rings.   So I was determined to finally conquer this technique, and now I have!  What you aren’t seeing are my MANY unsuccessful efforts at tatting this – not to mention my sore wrist

I used Lizbeth Spring Garden in size 20 and tatted 24 stitches in each ring.   That number of stitches seems to ‘stay put’ as I tat, although the final ring is still a little ‘fussy’ for me to do.   I should mention here that I did not finger tat the last ring; I rewound my shuttle, which is easy to do. 

I mounted this 8-ring motif on one of my black velvet discs, which is attached to one of the MANY pendants I have purchased at craft stores for the purpose of putting tatting on them. (Seriously, I could open a jewelry shop! I do try to buy them on sale!) This pendant (the only one I have of this kind) is a simple round plastic disk (but has some weight to it) which happened to have these silver (not pink) rhinestones affixed in a circle around the edge, and had an indented area which had a picture of a flower. I simply removed the picture and inserted my velvet disk.

I am as elated at accomplishing these rings as I was when I tatted my first ring 23 years ago (August 1989) and made my first 3-D items (early 1990s).    These are just simple rings, but interlocking them gives them a unique  look, and puts them into the ‘Celtic’ category.   I love all the techniques such as overlapped rings and interwoven Celtic chains and also motifs made in sections that are later ‘intertwined’.   They elevate tatting to another artistic level! 

Rachel Colvin Jackson  and  Karen Cabrera
I became aware of Rachel Jackson's blog (Piney Woods Tatter http://pineywoodstatter.blogspot.com/ ) last December and I was SO fascinated with the amazing, unique jewelry she was making or adorning with these rings as a ‘base’.   However, she’s a needle tatter, and I wasn’t sure it was possible to do the rings easily with a shuttle. 

Then last month, Frivole (  http://leblogdefrivole.blogspot.com/ )discovered Rachel’s work,  and then searched on the internet for a way to do the rings with a shuttle – and found  Karen Cabrera's video showing how to do these interlocking rings – using a single shuttle!  

You can find Karen’s video (#77) among her AMAZING list of over 100 videos(!) at http://entrelanzaderas.blogspot.com/2010/10/clases-de-frivolite-tatting-lessons.html ). ( By the way, Karen tats ‘reverse Riego’ style, so it may look a little different to those who do ‘slip and slide’, but, of course, she’s forming the same double stitch knot.) Karen’s blog can be found at http://entrelanzaderas.blogspot.com/   



This is my necklace display stand, topped by a miniature  hat (possibly from Hobby Lobby).  The lace collar is the one I’ve often shown (designed by Gloria Crowther), and was made back in 1990.  I wore it to my niece’s Christening, and she is now 21 and in college!  

The collar has decorated many things – either my costumes or my displays.

I have more to say about the interlocking rings, but unfortunately, I have a busy week and also have to get ready for our tatting group’s event atVicary Mansion in Beaver County, PAon Saturday, August. 11.So I will elaborate more in a future post

 VICARY MANSION   http://www.bchrlf.org/

 If you click on the “Latest News” tab on the website, and scroll down a bit, you’ll see part of our tatting display from a couple of years ago.  The rooms in the mansion are much larger than they appear in the photos!   Other tabs will explain more about the history of the Mansion (finished in 1829) and all the events they hold there.