Shuttle Tatted Cluny Video

At last I have made the video on shuttle tatted clunies that I promised eons ago! I just had a new camera.....GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition, which is fabulous to use and the editing software was not too difficult, but the uploading was a nightmare! Still....got there in the end and here is the result. I hope it is of help to my follow tatters.a

New Year Doily - PDF

This little doily pattern is now available in PDF format. Here is the link to the PDF and it is also in my Free Pattern section on the right of my blog. Happy tatting! If you find any glitches in the pattern I would appreciate your update.

New Year Doily

I neede some cluny practice and this pattern is working out so well, first time around, that I am writing the pattern out as I go. I am using size 40 thread in white and ecru. When it is finished I will PDF it and put it in my Free Pattern section.

Bridal Headdress Cluny Motifs

These are the lates motifs I have designed that I intend to make into a bridal headdress. My future DIL wanted me to make her a tiara for the big day (which I have done...see previous post) but since her original request she developed breast cancer and has lost all her hair with the treatment.

Although the wedding is not until 4th September, her hair will still be very short, probably about 3 inches max and as such, I don't think that a tiara will be easy to wear. To soften the blow I entend to have one or two alternatives for her to wear, like these motifs made up onto a comb and also, I thought I might make a headband type. Originally she had not intended to wear a veil, but a little veil coming straight down from a combed headdress that can be worn at the back of the head would soften the shortness of her hair.

I will post more pics later in the process.

If anyone has any other ideas I would love to hear them.

Cluny Rosettes

These cluny rosettes are another idea I have had in making a bridal headdress.

They have been stiffened with sugar syrup.

I have almost finished another set of rosettes, but this time I have made them half ones and finished them off with beads. I shall have a go at stiffening them with PVA glue.

I will post a picture when they are done.

Cluny Cross Bookmark

My Mum asked me to make some bookmarks, so that she could give them to her new friends in the residential home that she is now in. I made the cross one that I had designed last year (Coates size 20) and also designed the variagated one (Lizbeth size 40). I then went on to make the cletic cross in yellow Lizbeth size 20 and maroon Coates size 20. This looks exactly the same front and back.

With this one (which is my favourite) I used the cross design but used clunies in the centre instead of rings and clunies in the corners instead of corner chains.

Tiara motifs

In a previous post I told you about our future daughter-in-law being diagnosed with breast cancer. Well, it was supposed to be good news, as there was no lymph involvement, and she would only have to have radiotherapy after the lump was removed. But it now turns out that she is HER2+, and for those who do not not understand what this means (which I didn't until recently) it is not good news! HER2+ means that she has the most agressive form of cancer and therefore will have to have the most aggressive form of treatment! Chemo, radiotherapy and Herceptin....the whole kit and kaboodle!

She had been growing her hair for the wedding, Sept 4 2010, but of course, will now loose all her hair. She had it cut short last week so that loosing it would not be so traumatic! It looks fantastic and she is so pleased, because by the time the wedding comes round her hair will have grown to this length at least. We have all assured her that we think it suits her better than when it was longer! And....hand on heart.....we all really mean this! It suits the shape of her face so well - it gives her that urchin look!

Now that I've got all that off my chest, the reason for the tiara motifs is this. I was always going to make DIL's tiara anyway, so I thought, to cheer her (and myself) up a bit I would make a start on the design. The pictures show my doodles so far. They are a long way from the finished article - I may not use anything I have done so far! LOL - but any feedback/comments/suggestions from my valued tatting friends and followers would be most welcome. My tentative idea is to make a larger motif for the centre, with smaller motifs on either side, and maybe even smaller again, petering out. I must mention that DIL is only small with a cute little face, so the whole thing has to be on the smaller side. When I get the final design right, I shall be using real crystals, so that it sparkles - it will also match in with the sparkles on her wedding dress. I have several shapes of crystal including faceted droppers. My personal favourite motif, so far, is the centre white one in the top row, but I also love to use clunies. Oh what a wonderful dilemma, I'm loving every moment of it, especially because of the reason that I am doing it! It was always going to be a pleasure, but now its magnitude is a thousand fold!

First Cluny Doily Completed

Well it's done! My first attempt at designing a doily incorporating clunies! Don't look too closely, the clunies at the end are quite a bit better than those at the start! But I have been bitten by the cluny bug - I am already in the process of using clunies in a new flower!

Wiring the cluny

I have been asked by several tatters to give more information on how I wired the cluny, so here it is!

All I did was to lay a length (longer than the required length) of 24 gauge paper-coated green wire alongside the centre thread of the loom over my fingers, bending a section of it to hold in the pinch with the loom. It is a bit awkward at first until you get a couple of wraps completed and then it gets much easier. You simply weave the cluny in exactly the same way although, if using a shuttle like me, you have to make the weaving action more deliberate. You just have to take a little more care when closing the cluny, but it is done in exactly the same way. The only extra that I do is to straighten the wire again before drawing up the threads. I fix the end of the cluny, at both ends, with PVA craft glue, which secures the cluny from unwrapping and also making sure it adheres to the wire. I then snip the excess wire and bend it in any way to make the shape I want. Job done!

The thread I used for these clunies was quite a thick shiny rayon. Mine was from a Brasilian company called Circulo and the thread is "Susi" and comes in an array of fabulous colours. My supplier was from Ebay and she only had this one thickness, which is about the same as a size 10 crochet cotton, maybe even slightly thicker. It's too thick for most tatting projects but for these wired clunies it is aboslutely perfect!

Wired Clunies!

As many of you will know, my latest projects have been to include clunies. I have decided to enter the Ring of Tatters 2009 competition which is to design a card. My entry, of course, will remain a secret, but I thought I would share one little bit with you.

Cluny leaves look really stunning but I wanted my leaves to be wired and so I thought I would try to incorporate wire into the weaving of the cluny and hey presto! I have a wired cluny that I can bend into a natural leaf shape!

Progression on the Cluny Doily!

This is the story so far. I am simply making it up as I go along. It is quite slow growing as the thread is only size 80, but I like the delicateness of the overall look. I think one, or maybe two more rounds, will be enough to complete this doily.

First Foray Into Cluny Design!

As the title suggests, this is my first attempt at trying to design a motif incorporating clunies. When I saw how fabulous Elisadusud's cluny tatting was I knew I had to master this technique! I had tried clunies in the past and managed to "create" a passable example but seeing Elisa's I knew that I had to bite the bullet and get some proper practice in.

After several trial runs I started my motif and by the time I had done my second round of clunies I found that I was really getting to grips with them. I occassionally find that the centre warp thread becomes irritatingly loose and can't seem to understand why, but then I will do another couple without any problem at all.

Ah well, as I have told many of my students in the past, it just takes practice, practic, pratice!