Category: demonstration

Demonstrations

Well, it’s been awhile again since I last posted. It’s not that I don’t have anything to post about, I just haven’t sat down to do it. ‘Sigh’

I was recently asked to demonstrate tatting for two groups, one at our local senior center and also for a crochet and knitting group in a nearby town. Both demonstrations were on the same day, one in the morning and one in the evening. That worked great because I could have everything together and in the car without too many trips of carrying things in and out of the house.

The timing for the local demonstration turned out to be not so good. Several people who were particularly interested in attending had conflicting events pop up, so they could not come. It wasn’t a washout. I spent two hours talking about tatting and teaching a lady the basics. We both had fun. I gave her a shuttle and thread to take home so she could continue to work on it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of her tatting. I’ll likely do another demonstration soon when more can attend.

The other demonstration was attended by six ladies of a group that meets once a month. They meet at a city library that is a central location from where the members live, which is pretty spread out. I brought several books, shuttles, and examples to share, and worked on having a talk ready if needed. Instead, they all jumped in, eager to try tatting. One lady, Jeanne, brought in a bunch of shuttles she had ordered for the occasion. I’m not sure where she found them. Some looked like Clover shuttles but didn’t have a name on them, others were a bit larger, but again, didn’t have a name on them. I gave each of them thread for their shuttles and some for a chain, and away they went!

Showing what the stitch looks like on wandasknottythoughts
Showing what the stitch looks like with really big shuttles.
Showing what to look for on wandasknottythoughts
Showing what to look for

While they loaded their shuttles I showed them ‘the flip’ using paracord. Bethany helped hold out the cord so I could make the stitches using large shuttles my husband made for this purpose. Doing it this way is not as pretty or easy as normal, but it shows the thread change when making the double stitch. Then I went around and worked with each of them individually.

Bethany, Jeanne, and Anne on wandasknottythoughts
Bethany, Jeanne, and Anne
Shana and Sandi on wandasknottythoughts
Shana and Sandi

One of the ladies had to leave before I took the pictures (Lori?). What is interesting about teaching people who already do thread handcrafts is they have previously developed a way to hold the thread. Within these six ladies, I believe six different ways were used.

Showing a few pointers on wandasknottythoughts
Showing a few pointers

Thanks to Jeanne and Shana for taking pictures, and the entire Sticks and Thread group for inviting me. It was an enjoyable evening for me, and I think it was for them as well.

Later that same week my sister and I were interviewed for a county newspaper about our crafts that we will be selling at a Christmas craft show in December. The journalist is talking to several artisans who will be there, not just us. When the journalist called my sister to set up the appointment she was surprised that tatting was one of the crafts. She thought it was a ‘lost’ art. (Where have we heard that before?) My sister and I laid out some of our work for pictures and the journalist was quite impressed. The paper is supposed to come out the week of Thanksgiving (next week). Oh, boy!

I’ve also had time to tat. I’ve done a bunch of angel wings for my cork angels, but they are not stiffened or glued on. I need to do that, as well as make more snowflakes. I did have to get out another ball of white in both size 10 and size 20. I want to make a few things that aren’t white before the show, but that means I’ll have to get out a few more shuttles. I wonder if I have any empty ones?

Are you working on anything for Christmas?

“One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody’s listening.” Franklin P. Jones

How to make a point

In several of my recent posts I’ve talked about using a SSSCh to make points in chains (LWML Logo, Practice points, and Still on Point). I’ve shared the motifs and earrings I’ve made with them both here and on Facebook and had a lot of requests about how I did them. Ninetta Caruso has done a photo example on her blog ninettacaruso.blogspot.com from 7 June 2019 about making them, which is where I went to learn how to do them.

In light of all the requests, I’ve decided I’ll try something new and do a video of how I’ve done them. In the video I use a second shuttle to make the SSSCh but it can be done with finger tatting if you’d rather.

This video has no audio except for the click of the shuttle, so no sound is needed. I’d love to hear from any who watch it on how it played, if there were any problems, and if it was helpful. This is my first try at this and I’m hoping it goes well.

This is also the first time I’ve tried anything on Youtube. Look at me, doing something new and scary, LOL!

‘If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.’ John Wooden

Tatting demonstration

Yesterday my husband and I were cleaning before re-arranging the living room when I came across one of my daughter’s old school newspapers from 1993 with my picture in it. My youngest was in second grade that year. Her teacher, Mrs. Val Graber, had the students invite parents or other family members to come in to share their skills and hobbies. My daughter asked me to share tatting with her class. I remember trying to come up with a presentation for 7 & 8 year olds. I talked about the different names tatting goes by in different countries and had them help me try to pronounce them, then shared some of it’s history. We had them sit on the floor close by and I tatted a few rings and chains for them. Each child received a 3″ x 5″ note card with some little bit of tatting on it, a butterfly, a caterpillar, or flowers I had made, the backgrounds made with markers. They were very pleased to get them, as I was very pleased to do them.

This was the first time I had gotten up in front of people to demonstrate or talk about tatting. Since then I have given other demonstrations, most to people of a slightly more advanced age, but all built on the confidence I found in sharing my enthusiasm about tatting with second graders.