Dagger Heart and Lobster Clasp

Half the medical procedures are done for the day... Next up, in a few hours, the second half: the cracked tooth meets Bill the Dentist. Yuck!

While waiting for the next lovely Monday Afternoon Appointment, I finished this up, using a small ball of red thread whose vitals I know not.  Bev, was very kind to send it to me.

#6 Motif Challenge

This is Vicki Clarke's 'Dagger Heart.  

I love the shape of it and very nearly gave it to my Doc this a.m., as it seemed to slightly symbolize the medical profession - not really quite a caduceus , but something mildly close!

The Doc is European, so I thought or assumed that she might like tatting.  Who knows. It wasn't quite finished.  Maybe next time...

Thanks, Vicki, this pattern is definitely a keeper!  I can see it done in many different threads.

 Abigail. "The Boss", loves her new bracelet.

Remember this? Well, I decided it would make a cute ankle bracelet for The Boss.  Unfortunately, I do not have a stash of findings, a situation I am going to remedy soon.  So, I was left with one option - the lobster clasp in bronze - and it is a bit bulky.  

But, it does work, and the littlel Miss is thrilled with her new jewellery.

Slowly but surely the hankie edging is GROWING!  It is going to be real purty!

The Muse Returns...

The Muse is nibbling on my shuttles once again...

Re-Evaluating

 #4 Motif Challenge

Design by Laura Bobay, courtesy of  Mark Myers aka tat-man

The back-up is done and I found it an unpleasant tat.  Not sure why, but the outer part buckles and the inner round is very tight, and the small rings overlap more than they should, according to the picture.  


The colours got to irritating me as well.  Grumpy.  Not entirely my fault as I have not been feeling up to par the past couple of days.  Didn't even tat yesterday.  Not one ds! (and the new teal lingerie - hate it!  Not my style and can't stand the colour!  So much for a big savings!)


Now I am back to the hankie border and really  (finally) enjoying the pure white with clear beads.  It is going to be pretty, and for once I am not feeling that I need to rush to finish.  This is new...


Have been thinking a lot about tatting and where i want to go with the whole shuttle and thread thing.  I realize I am definitely not a doily person.  Never have been, but they are a great device for learning stitches and developing patience. Now I have a whole box of them languishing in my cupboard!

Not being a person who wears jewellery, I have not been drawn into the whole earring, necklace and bracelet thing either.

Yesterday, when I saw a photo of Jane here, (which I rather like a lot, Jane,  and I do NOT think you look like an old git here at all, but a rather a very fetching 'woman of a certain age!') I started thinking once again of what I want to do with my NEED to tat.  

Those thoughts are still all in a jumble, but I am going through some sort of transition at the moment... I'll let you know when I find out myself what this is all about!

Tackling The Tarnish

In the past I have posted about this silver shuttle, given to me by a friend of the family who had it for years.  It had been given to her by a relative and she thought it was quite old.

Yesterday, while tooling around Tat-land, I came across this method of cleaning tarnished silver on Sharren's site. Crazy Mom has a post all about it here, as well.

I used a glass container, aluminum foil, baking soda, table salt and boiling water. I mixed all this up and plunked the shuttle in and stirred it for a bit.  Repeated the process.  Success!

The back is stamped C.B.&H. (Codding Bros. & Heilborn, South Attleboro MA) Sterling.

Codding Bros. & Heilborn was founded in 1862 in North Attleboro and went out of business in May 1918. They were manufacturers of sterling silver novelties. (Encyclopedia of American Silver Manufacturers, Rainwater & Redfield, 1998)

After it was all cleaned up I could really see the stamp and got to wondering about the origins of this shuttle and who had made it.  Enter the Internet.

Where would we be without this amazing reference tool for information that it would have taken weeks to find in "the olden days"?

There you have it.  A sterling silver shuttle, made in Massachusetts,  that is  probably one hundred years old or close to it, as it could not have been manufactured after 1918.  Amazing.  If it could talk, what an interesting story it could tat...

I did try to use this shuttle after it had gone through its metamorphosis and found I was very clumsy with it.  I kept dropping it and it seemed to be weighted in all the wrong places.  This made me think more about its previous owners.

My thought is that tatters of years gone by did not have the option of light, well-moulded plastics.  They did have wood and the early plastic-like materials  were light, but the metals were more demanding of control and possibly time. The tips are difficult to keep tight. It is a bit tricky to wind the thread on the silver shuttle, as there is no give at all.  That shuttle is hard and cold.

This shuttle definitely takes more time to load and is tricky with that hard silver point. It is heavy. It is weighted oddly. Yes, I do think tatters of an earlier era had a more difficult "tat" than I do with my tiny, trusty Clovers.