Monday, February 28, 2011

The One Off

I was such a busy tatter this weekend. From Friday until yesterday I made so many new bits. I even photographed and listed most of my new things. I really don't know what is behind this streak of creativity, but it just keeps on coming. It may be that a small comment made to me a while ago has ear wormed me. It was suggested that perhaps one off pieces are more interesting and valuable. This encouraged me to make more bits that cannot be remade exactly. It really is a freeing experience to tat without worrying about stitch counts or whether I can ever find a certain supply again or not.

Of course not everything I've been making is a one off. I made up the hexagonal headpiece/choker/headband and got it listed. It is totally repeatable. I also finished the conversion of the ankle corset piece into a choker, also a design that can be remade ad nauseum. By the way, I think it turned out pretty nice when I did it on purpose. I even got to add some of the runway pictures to the listing and chalk the design up to the stylists 'creative' use of an ankle corset.

The photo up top is of course a one off. I found this resin antler bit in a clearance bag I got at Michael's. I tatted around the triangle piece it hung from and them made stuff up as I went. I finished it with some heavy looking black chain, which is actually light. I haven't gotten this one listed yet partly because I feared I was listing too many things and partly because I adore it even though I know I will never wear it.

The other one off that I did get listed, there is still one more I'll show you tomorrow, is this asymmetrical piece. I had a bunch of metal rings of various sizes in a grab bag from Fire Mountain so I just started tatting around them and randomly connected them together as I worked. I didn't plan any of the designs, I just made this one up as well. Again I hung the whole thing from the black chain. What was surprising, besides that it turned out in the first place, is the weight of the piece. The metal gives it a nice solid feeling without being too heavy. It really gives the whole piece a sense of...I don't know, gravity.

It was pointed out to me that these look a bit like gears, so I dug around for more rings and came out with a few metal ones and a couple of rubber ones as well. So I'm working on turning those into a brown version. It will of course look completely different as I am making it the same random way. Side note, tatting around soft rubber rings, is not terribly easy. I will hopefully get that made up today and show you it and the other one off I still need to list tomorrow. Who knows when the streak will end and you will be stuck with random babbling again, so I suggest you enjoy this while it lasts.

3 comments:

Babs said...

Hello,

I finally gave the tatting a try aswell. I found materials for both shuttle tatting as needle tatting. The shuttle tatting isn't working at all, but the needle tatting is going a bit easier. I'm following your video and tutorial to try it out. It's not going very good at all, but I'm allready able to make the ring. Well, it works 3 out of 10 times, lol.

Lots of love, Babs

Babs said...

http://s117.photobucket.com/albums/o72/Siliun/?action=view&current=P1020705.jpg

Sitting in the sofa, this is what I managed to make from the video. I know it doesn't look perfect, but I think I have a lot of mistakes :( I doesn't look flat either.

TotusMel said...

That's pretty darn good Babs! I usually press my pieces after I finish them and that makes them look a bit better