No I'm not complaining about beads at all but I do have a gripe about how they're used by some people in their tatting designs.
I test tatted a design for a new designer a while back and was gobsmacked to find that she was telling people to sew beads onto the work. WHAT? I could scarcely believe it. Why would you tell people to sew on beads unless you're a new designer who doesn't know the craft from the inside out.
As it turned out this particular lass really didn't know the craft of tatted lace at all. She'd only been tatting a short while and had then decided she'd become a designer. Great idea but ..........
Back to beads. I think (do tell me if I'm wrong) there is only one situation when a bead MAY need to be 'sewn on' after the piece is finished (I'm talking about the traditional way of tatting with a shuttle) and that's when it's a very large bead that is required to sit in a ring. Sometimes called a focal bead. Even THAT can be avoided in many cases by including it in the tatting like this or this. You can also add the focal bead to the centre of a split ring too.
For those who sell on Etsy with some of these wonderful tatted jewellery pieces I do hope you're including ALL beads in the actual work and not sewing on afterwards. I'd hate to be a customer who's glorious piece of jewellery fell apart when the sewing came undone.
So my advice (whether asked for or not - and NONE of you did!!!!) is please, please, please don't sew beads onto tatting - include them safely while you're working.
As you know I don't 'do' videos as I feel they're making people lazy about reading patterns but in this case (techniques) I think they're valuable. I do have a bead technique section here on my pattern site. Free patterns are available here too.
May I add that none of the beads (except when added to a picot) were added to the thread before starting the work - see the Fantasy Flower here.
3 comments:
Tatting thread is better than sewing thread so why introduce more knots that can undo and be seen when you can have beads there as soon as you’ve finished tatting???
I agree with you entirely Jane and you kindly gave me some help with a heart design that needed some extra beads incorporated so that I didn't need to add the beads separately. When making jewellery items I always thread beads onto the shuttles (much easier to incorporate and much more secure) but, as you say, sometimes a focal bead does need to be stitched in at the end. If this is the case, I keep the threads long when I cut them from the completed tatting so that I can use them for attaching the focal bead. This ensures that at least one end of the thread is extremely secure. Then I use plenty of stab stitches to ensure that the other end is also secure. The liquid I use for stiffening items also sticks the cut end to the other threads.
I am not anonymous, I am Maureen but Google won’t let me sign in and keeps telling me I am using the wrong password.
I’ve stopped using beads, they bother me on the shuttle, but what I wanted to say is that I agree completely about patterns on YouTube! It takes far too long to watch these and it such a shame because some of the designs are really lovely.
But it’s not a venue for me, sadly.
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