Hello Lovely Tatters!
I’m hoping this finds all of you and yours safe, sane, and healthy. That’s a tall order these days, I know, but I don’t like the alternative. For myself, I spend a great deal of time in solitary pursuits so time away from other people isn’t frequently a hardship. For some others, it can be a very challenging issue and I hope you’ve got a support network!
There’s nothing worse than trying to deal with being alone when you’re not accustomed to being able to come and go at your leisure, then suddenly being told you can’t go to your “zen” places. It’s like having the rug ripped out from under you, I’m sure! Never a fun feeling. For this reason I am so grateful for my tatting community at large, and several people therein that I consider friends. Shoutout to my “peeps’, you will never know how very deeply I appreciate each and every one of you!
I am frequently found out and about town here (our local lockdown guidelines still allow for socially distant use of restaurants and coffee shops) I take my tatting. I’m frequently approached by a masked face admiring the work or wanting to just watch. One thing I always get asked, however, and it does bug me: “What do you DO with it?”
It’s at this point that I grab my phone and open up my “Tatting” folder in my picture app. I take photos of everything I’ve completed, or I take pictures as I’m designing so I can see the progression of an item and think about where to make changes. I also have a notebook, but it’s all scribbles and I doubt anyone could read it. If we're being honest, there are times I can barely read it myself. Unlike my good friend, Sandi, I'm not that great with a pencil and paper.
In my photos are pictures of so many things. I have pictures of ice drops, button ornaments, doilies, baby booties, decorated keys, jewelry, snowflakes, baby bonnets (one of which I was able to make when employed at an historic village restoration in Nova Scotia!), barefoot sandals (popular for beach weddings), decorative bags (made one as a gift for a friend's knitting goodies), the list is ENDLESS!! Put it this way, if you can make it with knitting or crochet, you can make it with tatting! Do you like pineapple crochet doilies? There is a lady in one of the tatting groups that is developing a way to make them with tatting, and she's doing a bang-up job, too! No, I'm not into pineapple designs, never have been, but I can appreciate the work that goes into converting the pattern and making it work.
Tatting is "knot" a lost art! It is making a resurgence and since the pandemic hit, that resurgence is gaining momentum like gangbusters! If it was a snowball rolling down a mountainside, it would be the size of a small city by now and shows no sign of slowing down! Tatting patterns, once written in what I considered a foreign language, are now written in any way you might like to read them. Charted, point form, paragraph form, some are presented in videos, some are step by step with photos. There are beautifully edited blogs (unlike mine that is relatively boring, sorry, I'm not a tech guru!), some with wonderful videos.
If you go to your web browser and type the word "tatted lace" or "tatting lace" or just "tatting", you'll get some hits that include tattoo art, but you'll get an unbelievable number of sites that offer eye candy of unbelievable beauty. There are tutorials, there are videos demonstrating advanced techniques. Blogs that outline patterns, or offer information on where to find things. If you can find a language, there's likely a tatting blog written in it, and maybe in some languages you've not thought of (and that's where the "translate" button on the browser bar comes in SO handy!).
Tatting, for me, has been sent from Heaven. It has connected me to a global community of wonderful and talented people that are so willing to share what they know with anyone interested in learning that I'm sure the art will thrive. People share their patterns freely, yes, but others have put in exhaustive work and are selling their books; the result is most often just breathtaking.
If you're just starting on this journey, you're embarking on a life-long passion that will become an addiction, so consider this fair warning! You will lose yourself in the grace and balance that offers itself freely in the rhythm of making the knots, and in the graceful curves and loops afforded by the rings and chains. It can be mesmerizing. You're entering into a world-wide community of artisans that are warm, welcoming, intelligent talented beyond words, and willing to help any way they can. Glad to have you with us!
Happy Tatting!
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