Beads and tools

This entry will not be so impressive, but it might be helpful.
It is about beads tatted withing the lace and the tools you need. For the ones already familiar with the tatting with beads, sorry, no new territory. But, if you have some more hints, please share them with the newbies.
These would be beads you might consider to tat at the same time as the lace. Again, sky is the limit, it is just to get an idea.

No, no bead in the middle of a ring, no big bead tatted in Ankars. Except the ones used already as a joining element. But it is safer te work the elements separatelly and to join them while decorating the foundation than hanging a heavy bead. Ankars tatting is about beauty, perfection as it can be and resistance at the same time, the tatting skills stay more with the technique to create a perfect base for the beads than to incorporate the beads into the lace.
Recommendation: the smaller the beads the better. Preferably: even beads, especially when included on the core thread. This is changing the proportion little by little. For 3 rocailles 11.0 you will change the dimension of a ring by 3 mm. Funny. This brings us always some frustration while adapting an existing pattern.
Small bead = tiny hole. A truism which can really hurt. 11.0 Miuki has a hole of 0,8 mm, A 15.0 has a 0,7 mm hole. This is huge! And this can create problems to work with the beads, to string them on the thread. Not to speak about the choice of the thread.
Normally, I  use what you can see here. Forgot the place a paperclip. Important that one too.

Beading needles. Not only to sew the beads on the lace, but also to string the beads. And yes, a 10 size beading needle can be used with a thread similar to the Lizbeth 40. I did it. Never forget when choosing the beads and the thread: when you use a needle, a beating tool, a threader, you will always have a strand of 2 when you string your beads.
How to skip it: apply glue to harden the end of thread and try to use it. Not my favorite choice, though.

My "tool". Done from broken guitar string. My son knows already: I receive all his broken strings.
I prefer an open end to the ready-to-buy variant. A lot more versatile.
How to make it? Take some 10 cm of a tiny wire, (from electrical cable, from craft copper wire, the 0,3 is perfect, a fishing wire), fold it 2. Done.
For what it serves? To string the beads, to place the beads on the picots, to make difficult joins, to place beads/elements the fine crochet hook cannot place.

  

Crochet hook. We know it. The finer, the better.
Perfect tool to string individual beads, to place beads on the picots.
Why finer? Not only because the holes are under 1 mm but also because sometimes the joins can be done in between the beads:

In these cases I tend to use my tool. 

Limits: cases like this one: 

 So you turn to the cheap wire tool: place it on the thread, place the bead, fix the paper clip.

 

 

The smart ones will make very long (gauged) picots. Viable solution when you work with regular beads. What about the irregular beads?
See the last picture? it is what comes next int he blog: placing the seed beads and using them not only as decorative elements.

Simple ROR earrings

Those ones were waiting to get a how to tat history... And since I would not like to tempt some tatters to try to estimate, I just rushed a bit with the pattern. Which I promissed anyway.

Skills required: shuttle tatting, tatting with beads, up and down joins. 

Small reminder for the ones liking a neat finish, no twisted picots. Never fight against the thread. This always can punish sooner or later. Better learn the right technique than making compromises to the quality of your lace. Not even when worked "for fun". Yes, I've been told this one too: "We do not work at an academic level, just for fun."

· Up join - marked with + in the pattern (the regular one, the one we learn at the beginning) will make that the ring you are working lay under the rings already worked. Reason: the thread you pull from the left hand to make the joining loop brings the worked ds from underneath the work. You will pass the shuttle also from down towards up.  

· Down join - marked with * in the written pattern: when you pull the thread to make the join, the worked ds are on top of the previous rings anyway and the shuttle passes from left to right ON TOP of the work, so this ring will remain on top. 

That  simple. 

There you go for the pattern. 

1 shuttle project. 

Material needed: thread of your choice (my Penny 30 gave me a 2,5 cm long earring), 28 seed beads (29 for the daring variant, with the tatted in crystal). Beads of your choice for the finish. 

Shuttle, beading threader, fine crochet hook, scrissors, needle (for the finish). Magic thread trick is beautiful, but maybe you would like to place 1 bead and then hide the thread. 

All the picots will be very small picots.

Basic pattern: 

8 rings worked in the given order. 

R1: 5 - 5 - 10, cl, dnt

R2: 10 + (to R1)  20 - 10, cl, dnt

R3: 10 + (to R2) 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R4: 5 + (to R3) 10 - 5, cl, dnt

R5: 5 + (to R4) 5 - 10, cl, dnt

R6: 10 + (to R5) 15  - 10, cl, dnt

R7: 10 * (up join to R6) 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R8: 5 + 10 + (folded join to R7) 5 cl, cut thread. 

The beaded variant requires the use of the beads. Known already: 3 beads in the loop for the ring, 1 from  the shuttle to form this diamond (marked dbp in the pattern).  All rings will start with those 3 beads in the left hand, except the ring 6. Feel free to change it if you prefer it. 

String on the shuttle 28 beads. 

R1: 5 - 5 dbd  1 - 11, cl, dnt

R2: 11 + (to R1) 10 dbp 10 - 11, cl, dnt

R3: 11 + (to R2) 1 dbp 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R4: 5 + (to R3) 5 dbp 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R5: 5 + (to R4) 5 dbp 1 - 11, cl, dnt

R6: 11 + (to R5) 15  - 11, cl, dnt

R7: 11 * (up join to R6) 1 dbp 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R8: 5 + 5 dbp 5 + (folded join to R7) 5 cl, cut thread. 

Now, you are ready to embellish your earring as it pleases you. 

For the daring ones, I tell how I worked my earring. Not a big thing, bit it requires a bit of patience during the work. I like challenges so I tatted in my crystal. I placed all my seed beads on the shuttle and also the crystal blocked with a seed bead, like for the free stamen for the Sakura patern. 

The beads sequence to fill the shuttle is: 25 seed beads, this crystal with the seed bead blocker, 3 seed beads. 

Start from the ring 2 with the 3 seed beads and the crystal + blocker in the loop. When the ring will be closed, the cristal will remain trapped at the base of the ring. Then you must tat  the ring 3... In this case you should not have any folded join. Only take care about the placement of the layered rings. 

Have fun. For any questions I am always around. 

Happy tatting. 

  

Tatting and cabochons

In the Ankars tehnique among a lot of other new elements, apears the use of a cab worked in lace. It does not matter what kind, what form, as long as it fits. Matter of taste too.
The simpliest manner to do it is to tat a front element, with a nice center, that a back side and capture the cab /stone in between by sewing those 2 layers together or joining them by another round of tatting.
The method I found in a Russian forum (the author was Nina Prokoviewich but I think the method belong to Ekaterina Stepnaya) is, in my eyes nicer.
Irina Astratenko has also another method: 1 shuttle, alternating rings with seed beads in between. (work ring, turn work, place bead, work ring, turn, place bead, work ring, join... )
The beads are optional.
To understand the principle: you will tat both sides at the same time, by making some sort of frame.
You need 2 shuttles, because you will want that the threads you use for the rings end at the same point, to you can start the chain. Of course, you can use a shuttle and a ball, but you will need to turn and flip work.
You can choose any type of cabochon. My first try was a rivoli, 5 mm thick. I hesitates a lot to publish this method because I was thinking I am infringing the rights of Marie McCurry, but I am not. By the way: you should pay a visit to her page. Lots of goodies.
So there you go.

 

The last piece was a mother of pearl pendant: 

Needed material:

You start by planning your tatting by copying the shape of your cab and then drawing. Use axes, just draw, imagine how it would be. 1:1 scale is very good. Working with cabochons and designing is not for beginers, you need to know your thread, in order to estimate the ds and to place the joins. Gauge your thread by making rings and chains increasing the ds systematicly. It can help you to plan your tatting. Like this you will have more or less your rough pattern. 

I used for my test the Penny 30. All my rings were 8 - 8 - 8, all my chains were 8 bdp 8 (bdp: beaded diamond picot). 

I choose the pink shuttle thread to work the upper rings and the blue shuttle to work the lower ones. The chains: pink shuttle thread was the core thread. Like this I avoided the thread to make unwanted switches. 

I always start like this. Never a knot. I hide the ends with the first ds. 

Work the first ring with the pink shuttle, do not turn. Take the blue shuttle and work very close the lower ring. Close and turn work. Hold both rings tight and start chain. 

Snug the chain and prepare to work the next set of 2 rings. You will join the upper rings to form 1 round and the lower ones the same. 

You will notice soon that they for the cage for the cab. 

Continue until you will consider necessary for your stone. Make tests from time to time, to estimate how much you need to work. It is better to have it tighter, like this the lace will hold the stone very well in place. You will finish every round normally. 

You will close first the upper rings. Then you will place your cabochon, hold it in place and work the lower ring, make the last joins and you will see already the stone caged in your lace. Pretty uncomfortable this last ring, but possible. Tat the last chain to finish your work. 

Fot the white and lila piece, I worked an extra round.  

I worked another piece with some beads. Not necessarily my thing, but I can show you how you can play after: 

You can decorate this base as you like. 

I would suggest you to start with a round piece and no beads (except the outer round). 

Pay attention when you start any ring. The smallest bare thread between the 2 rings can spoil a lot from your work. 

For a thicher cabochon, just make bigger rings. But still do not plan more ds between the joins because they will tend to go up, and not lay on the stone. 

Understanding Ankars

An Ankars piece is easy to recognize. I just found this piece here (you can recall it for sure) and I try to explain some of the distinctive elements. I do not touch the thread used. Only the construction elements or the foundation and the beads.  

1. The stacked rings. 

They are caracteristic for Rina Stepnaya's Ankars orientation. 

There are 2 big groups of this element "ring on ring" : the ROR simple and complexe ones. 

Golden rule: rings must very well closed, snug to get the stiffness necessary, make sure that the front side and back side are "clean", back side must be as beautiful and neat as the front side. You must develop  your way to close these rings. If they are not correctly and completely closed, you will have important issues for the final aspect and the balance of those stacked rings. One reason more to avoid coton, even the best one. 

There is no order how you work them. You can start from the larger ring, work all the joining picots and then the smaller rings, starting from the larger one to the smaller one, joining through the previous ring. No bare thread left between the rings, otherwise they will not pile up nicely. 

In noticed that up join and down join tend to place the rings under or on top of the base ring. For sure, this allows you to make clean joins, no twist for the thread. 

As you notice, a good planing is necessary. 

More about this: http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2013/ankars/newror_tutorial.pdf. 

2. Sewed beads

There is no restriction in using the beads. 1 rule though: best quality beads. The regular shaped ones are kind to you and to your patterns. They are easy to incorporate. But don't stay away from the baroque beads. They bring personality and charm to the pieces. 

Crystals of glass beads: fire treaded ones, to avoid that the thread is cut. 

Easy test for the quality: give them a bath with concentrated soap. If after some hours they did not loose the colour, you can use them. But, again, for some beads you should not jump on the brand new ones... the older ones are sometimes better. 

How to plan them? 

a) you know your thread, and you adapt your pattern to your beads. 

b) you tat the foundation and then search the beads. 

Seed beads should be very regular. You can use them in the lace (godo planning required), sew them, use them as "stoppers" of "buffers" for bigger beads. 

Fire treated. 

No words. But make sure they are the good type. 

Yup, they are welcome. 

Check the quality. 

Sky is actually the limit. 

3. Beading skills are welcome in Ankars. 

4. The seed beads are often tatted in. There are a lot of possibilities, this required a full class. There are more ways to use them than picots or beads on core thread. You would be surprised. 

5. Often there is a central piece, a focus one. In this necklace  it is this cabochon. There are at least 4 ways to do it. Again, a blog entry would be necessary. Trust me, it is not the known way of tat an edging for the front, tat a flower for the back and we put them together with some beads. 

During the class I will give details about all these elements. 

Ankars tatting rules for a simple pattern

Please, do not make the mistake to believe Ankars means stacked rings, 3D tatting and multilayered pieces.
This technique uses common tatting patterns but there are some details which make from a common pattern an Ankars piece.
- work it with shiny, resistent, polyester thread (Lavsan, Isacord, Brildor, any machine embroidery brand you find as long as it is resistent, shiny, not elastic).
- tat the ds according to the Ankars requierments: right hand completelly still, no moving, thread tight, form the knot with the left hand. This is Rina Stepnaya's way of tatting for Ankars. This makes a stiff lace. The video of Karen Cabrera shows it perfectly. Remember it looks like regular tatting, but this makes the difference:

- combine 3 or 4 strands, one of them can be easily from a different colour or metallic.
- choose good quality beads, even ones (Toho, Miuki, quality ones).
- plan your beads to tat it the lace with extreme care.

I will show you how a simple tatting element can become Ankars. I admit, not the spectacular one, but it is something different than tatting with beads. And no, beanile is not Ankars, Nina Libin is clear about this one.

The simpliest rosette ever. Tatted with polyester thread (Penny 30), really stiff. All gold Toho rocailles 11.0 are tatted in.  The white and the red ones are sewed. This is one of the ways used in Ankars. 

You need to tat the rosette: 

12 x 4 = 48 beads for the rings (they will be on the shuttle). 

6 beads on the ball. 

To finish it: beading needle required 6 Toho white, 6 Toho red, 11.0 size. And 1 finishing crystal (if you wish). 

All rings: 10 - 5 - 5 - 10. 

All chains: 25. 

All joins are done between the beads. 

R1: take 11 beads in the loop. 10 ds, bring from the loop 4 beads, 5 ds , bring 3 beads from the hand, 1 from the shuttle, 5 ds, bring the last 4 beads from the loop, 10 ds, close ring, turn work. 

Remark: when you make those 4 beads picots, do not make them too tight. You will want to have some manoeuvre space when you make the join. 

Chain 1: bring 1 bead from the ball, hold it tight, start chain. 25 ds, snug as tight as you can (too bad for the aspect if you work with coton), turn work. 

R2: take 7 beads in the loop.  10 ds, join between the beads, 5 ds, make the diamond beaded picot, 5 ds, bring the 4 beads from the loop, 10 ds, close ring, turn. 

Repeat until you finish the flower. 

The last join is a bit difficult, make sure you make it between the right beads. 

You will notice that the flower is not stable in the center. 

You just come with the beading needle and wave in the beads you kept for finishing. My piece gained in stability after sewing the red ones. The white I added in fact just to bring some contrast. 

I played with one of those beaded centers by adding a 4 hole pearl and giving some volume to the piece. 

Do not be afraid of experimenting. But if you want to make an Ankars piece, just respect the Ankars basic rules. This way of making the ds will improve your tatting too, since this movement forces the thread to wrap better around the core thread. As for the beads, unleash your imagination, sky is the limit! There is actually no Ankars pattern... the originality comes from the way the elements are combined, the beads scheme and the colour scheme. 

Have fun and happy tatting. 

  

Ribbon flowers

This is for you. The solution I found for a tatting riddle.
There are more of them, for sure. I mentally tatted 3 of them, I tested only one.
There you go.
All you need: 2 shuttles, one filled with ribbon, the other one with thread, crochet hook. Scissors. Forgot about them.
I will not make any pattern I will just "show the way" how to do it. The rest is up to you to adjust.
I worked with organza 0,5 mm wideribbon and 20 Penny polyester thread.
Why organza? because it has a fine texture. Any other ribbon for embroidery would do it.
Make a gauge for the ribbon. I made mine of 1 cm.

You will make only chains. 

Take the gauge and make witht he ribbon the inner petal. Roll right  1 or 2 times the thread at the base of this petal. Remove the gauge, take the shuttle with the organza thread and start tatting the chain. Careful not to diform the measured ribbon. And I strongly advice you to snug in time. You cannot tighten this chain after some ds.  

 

When you reach the upper part of the inner petal, you make a Catherine Wheel join, so the organza ribbon remains a continous thread trapped in the join. 

 

Finish the chain. 

You will join the 2 sides of this chain to form the ring with the thread from the roll part you did when you started the petal. secure this join and then make a slt with the ribbon. Start over. 

Hope it helps. It is not so wasy to get it nice from the first try, but it works! Have fun. 

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.