Monday, May 2, 2016

Start At The Very Beginning

'The Tatted Artistry of Teiko Fujito' has been calling to me ever since it arrived in February. I paged through it yesterday and wondered where to begin. The beginning, of course, just as the song says. I'm going to work my way through the book. The motifs are numbered; I shall follow the numbers.
The book is structured so that it begins with one shuttle patterns and then progresses to two shuttles and then three. There's not a lot of text, it relies mostly on diagrams:



It's one of those motifs that looks simple but isn't easy to get right.
The little motif on the left is my first attempt. It cups, as you can see. I didn't think carefully enough about what changes were required in order for it to lie flat, so my second attempt is considerably worse! The third one was good enough for me to continue. Getting the picot lengths and bare thread spaces correct is key. That's true for many of the patterns in the book, so I'm hoping that by starting at the first motif, I will gain the experience I need to do the more complicated designs later.

12 comments:

  1. That's a beautiful book! I should start at the beginning as well. I'm not very good with adjusting bare thread lengths, but I guess practice makes perfect.

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  2. That is an interestingly shaped medallion !! Curious to see what the next ones are.
    The cupped ones look cute, tho' :-)

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  3. Your final looks great! Are you using some kind of gauge? Consistency is my issue with bare threads and somehow an unwillingness to make it close to long enough.
    Guess what song is in my head!

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    1. I used a gauge for the long picots. I tried to make one for the bare spaces, but in the end had to eyeball them, because they're not all the same.

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  4. That looks wonderful!! Looks somewhat complicated!! :)

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  5. Looks a bit complicated, to me. Bare threads and I don't get along, but your final piece looks great.

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  6. The cupped one would look great on a Christmas ball.

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  7. Pretty!

    I'll wager that after a few of her patterns, you will know how she designs and you will not need a gauge or anything but your intuition and your clever eye!

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  8. Bare threads are how I learned to tat but alas I don't get enough practice as I love the more modern patterns. I wonder if the cupping can be blocked out.

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  9. It is lovely and I agree with others, the cupped ones can be used for xmas balls!

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  10. Love this book and her designs are unlike many and makes this book unique and great to own, the coping is because she doesn't mention picot sizes and guessing is required. It is the only problem throughout the book and once this is done there is no stopping you :)

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