For any who are interested....I use twice the amount of sugar to the amount of water. For the tiara and motifs (I have put in my album) I used half cup of sugar to quarter cup of water. Put into a saucepan, bring to the boil gently, stirring constantly until all the sugar is dissolved and then boil rapidly for approximately 2 minutes. You want a syrup that is thin enough to soak into the tatting but not too thin that it will not dry very hard. (Only experimentation will give you the right results.)Next, I dip the tatting in plain water first and blot up the excess. This allows the syrup to soak into the tatting much better. After allowing the syrup to cool slightly I then dip the tatting into the syrup, making sure that every bit of the tatting is completely covered by the syrup. Don't let the syrup cool too much otherwise it becomes too thick to handle. Take the tatting out of the syrup and blot away the excess with a damp cloth.
Shape the tatting by pulling into position and then place onto a baking sheet covered in alluminium foil and put into a slightly warm oven. I set my fan oven at about 75 degrees C. It mustn't be any hotter otherwise the tatting will brown! Keep a watch on it! I take it out after 5 minutes and move the pieces about so that they don't stick and then put them back in for another 5 minutes, which will probably be enough.
Try it and Happy Stiffening!
8 comments:
Thanks, Linda. I've made a copy of those instructions for my "techniques" file!
2 questions- 1. Do you wipe the beads off?
2. Why sugar and not glue?
just curious
p.s. I love the pearl tiara!
Thanks for sharing and OMG the items are just gorgeous!!!!
'Red' lef a comment which I published and yet it is not showing yet, perhaps it will later!
Anyway she asked what temp I set my oven at. As I said in the post, I set it to 75 degrees C.
And for Victats....I use sugar syrup because I have used it for many, many years, long before I had ever heard of PVA glue! I suppose we all tend to stick (no pun intended LOL) to the methods that are familiar to us, and I know that ugar syrup works for me. It also has the advantage of being able to be renewed without any spoiling of the tatting. I used to take a stiffened tiara on all my tatting demos, for years. I re-stiffened it several times, and each time it looked as good as new!
Linda, the tiara is so beautiful.
Stunning Linda!! The Tiara's are so Beautiful!!!
Do you use a mold to shape the Tiara's around? How do they hold their shape when you put them in the oven?
Love the tiara. The Sugar syrup take me back to the 50's when we stiffen our can can to go under the flared skirts.
The tiara is magnificent......you have done a great job Linda.....interesting about the sugar syrup....here in Australia we are told not to use it because of all the ants that invade our homes....I have used the PVA glue mixed with water 1/10 water....but havent used it often
Hugs
Joy
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