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Thursday, August 1, 2013

How I put my beads with some sort of dental floss

I shared some time ago a pattern of an tatted element having a bead strung on a chain.



I saw from a looong thread in FB that, apparently, there are some struggling to work this element, but do not understand really how I placed it. Not that difficult and I did not discovered America again.

First of all, the bead must have a hole big enough to let pass the chain. So you should first search for that bead fitting to what you want to go. Me, personally, I work only with very thin thread, so part of my problem is solved. But if you try to work the pattern with a Lizbeth 20 or even 40, you might should reconsider.

This for a start.

Because I wanted it like this, I started, instead of a ring (the bigger ring in the middle of the element), with a chain, placing a paper clip to make sure that I can close it when I'm done. When I finished the chain, I used my special tool. Not a dental floss but a better one. My son plays guitar and I am always demanding him to bring me the broken strings. The tiniest one is perfect for me: it is thin, even thinner than my thread, made out of steel, so it is resistent. Just perfect. (by the way, if I do not pay attention, it gets easily lost...)

This is what I use to place the beads between the picots, because it lets me a tiny part of the picot available and the join is really clean. Working with a thin tread, so I need it, instead of a paper clip.

This seems to be the problem:


So, the sequence was the following: start chain (paper clip, of course, like this you will have a picot when you remove it), work your chain. And then you have 2 choices.
1. Remove the paper clip, use the "tool" to secure the picot, place the pearl with the large hole ON the chain, make the join and close the ring.
2. Place the bead on a fine crochet hook, remove the paper clip, use the crochet to place the bead...

I made really quickly some pictures to show how I use this tool I have, there is no tatting in there, just the instructions.



Of course, you must be a bit familiar with tatting with beads but this is not that difficult.
I hope this helps the tatting friends from Italy. Better to explain it in my blog, that to write novels as comments in threads.
Titine did a gread job with this pattern: She tricked it nicelly. Her picture is here.