Pattern Sakura

For a tatting exhibition in Japan, organized by the Romanian Embassy in Tokio, I made a hair comb using the symbol of the Sakura.

The pattern is, again, not the important element here, but the technique, the way I made those little beads to make the floating stamen.

In order to do this you need to prepare your beads, a beading needle or simply something to allow you to pass a second time through the beads. I use just my guitar string, I think you saw it in action several times. 

Material needed: seed beads of your choice, stringing tool (dental floss, beading needle, your choice), 5 paper clips. 

1 Shuttle and ball (CTM). 

Technical difficulties: none! Just a nice mock picot and lock joins. Manipulating the beads and making clean lock joins is task enough.   

The Sakura has 5 petals, sou you will need to string 10 stamen on the shuttle and keep aside the beads for 5 others which you will string while you work. 

Preparing the beads: 

	Before filling the shuttle, prepare the stamen as follows:  string the beads for 1 stamen.
	pass the beading needle through the beads except the last one.
	Snug. Done. Prepare to make the next 10 ones.

Fill the shuttle with these stamen on. Group them by 2, leave some space in between them so you can use them when you need it and still have thread to work the needed ds. Do not cut the thread. 

The central stamen will be a long beaded picot secured with paper clip, so make sure you have all the material ready. 

Start ring with all the stamen in the loop.

Working sequence: repeat 5 times: 3 ds stamen 1 ds beaded picot with paper clip 1ds stamen 3 ds picot. 

The central part is done, you have all the elements ready. 

Note: 

· Patience is needed to manipulate those beads (stamen), but it is easy: just take the upper one and move it... 

· Try to avoid beads with cutting edges.  

Next step: all chains and lock joins. I used sequences of 15 ds, but please, adjust them to fit your needs. I choose not to make any join between the chain, I like the way the petals just superpose. You can use the Catherine Wheel join, but I prefered to interrupt the core thread, to have a nice angle. 

In the picture of the comb, you have 3 different ways to use those stamen. 

Left one: long beaded picot. Simple. 

Middle: you have now already the directions. 

Right: 1 stamen used as a bead at the base of the ring. It is working and the beauty is that it can be done not to lay flat. 

Hope this helps. 

Have fun tatting.