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.
