international drop addiction

Thank you very much for your nice comments in my last post.😍🌹

That's the international story: after last year Edda Guastalla's tutorial on Etsy ("Come si costruisce un castone a chiacchierino", tutorial and 14 patterns), many tatters around the world became addicted in making bezels with tatting, especially Diane, who wrote a very clear Ice Drop Tutorial and started her VERY contagious series of ice drops, two or more per days for months, so beautiful that any attempt to resist is vain. There are many other patterns online in "Tatternet" (the internet looks like that if you only look for tatting!).

I had resisted till last week, but now you can say I've taken the worst infection.

I remembered a clear post in 2014 by Corina about Tatting and cabochons, then I followed her instructions for the method she had found in a Russian forum. Fast said: you tat detached R1 and R2 with the shuttle, then a chain, then tat R3 joined to R1, and in the same place tat R4 joined to R2. Continue with another chain and so on, R5 joined to R3, R6 joined to R4, chain again...

Those are stones, quartz. The method is simple and versatile (ops! another English word equal in Italian!), in fact the two rings, that you tat in the same place, let you fine-tune the bezel as you go around, there isn't the need of many prototypes to find the right measure. Corina mentions that you can draw the shape and plan ahead a little your path. I found that is better stay a bit larger, because stones have their thickness and they are all different. My first trials are very basic though.

In the next, R1 is 4-4-4, R2 is 6-4-6, chain is 6-6.

Thread is almost a size 70, HWT (ask Jane Eborall the acronym), the thin multicolour is metallic Madeira.

The next is tatted with DMC 283 metallic silver, "he" is the most photogenic in the group...
Pattern is like Diane's, in fact it has been tatted one side then, without cutting the thread, the other side.

These are black faceted glass beads.

The next are handmade glass beads that I bought in Venice in 2015, pattern is following the Russian method, then I added one or two rounds with curled rings. R1 and R2 are 8-3-8.

The next  is another stone (agate?) that I bought in the local market some time ago, pattern is equal to the cabochon that I tatted and showed in a post of June 2014 (unexpected lifeless vitality), they are two equal rounds, rings are 3-4-3 and chains are 4-4, I had to guess the number of rings because you can't say that it fits the stone till you had tatted everything, so it isn't an easy method, at least one prototype is needed. I added the last outer round of chains at the end. I don't feel to recommend this method. Thread is HWT but the little spool with sewing thread hasn't a label, I can't remember where it is from.

That in next pic is a clear glass bead, I've bought 2 but in one the hook had broken. Thread is dmc 283, sorry I didn't write down the stitch count.

Finished? Oh no! I still have a spool and miles of gold thread!

And that is an empty cage, "non tutte le ciambelle riescono col buco", i.e. things can't be expected to turn out right every time.

Now I should choose one of the drops to match with my new silk dress, if ever it will be finished in time for a wedding in early July I have been invited to.

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related post

unexpected lifeless vitality

Update: this is me with the new dress, pattern is from Burda: