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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Snap, Crackle and Possibilities

Don't tell anybody. I haven't done any minis yet today. I am rediscovering tatting. Eventually I will get it down small enough for minis. Right now I am just practicing....

Tessie will let me continue as long as I keep making things with smaller and smaller thread...I am not sure how long that is going to last, so I am cramming as much as I can into each hour of the day.

Right now I am experimenting with Valdini #8 Perle cotton. It is hand died and very pretty. I saw some photos on the net of new ideas with buttons and old ones with beads. I got as far as the buttons. Sorry, no patterns so far. Maybe when I get down to mini size.None of these pieces are finished and I am not even sure what they are going to be, but it is fun to work with.

Now I am down to the one on Tessie's feet. It is done with Flower Thread, which is a bit finer than the #8. I still have a way to go to the mini size.

You may be asking yourself what a bottle of copper colored nail polish has to do with tatting....I was experimenting with that too.

The reports aren't conclusive yet, but that is the "possibilities" factor. I found it this morning at Walmart. Take a look at this.
It is a new kind of nail polish that is "crackle" finish! You have to have another coat of polish under it before it will crackle, so I am going to have to do a bit of experimenting. It comes in lots of colors, including black, gray and metallics. It is put out by "Salon Perfect".

I am thinking that it has mini possibilities....This is just over light blue, but if it was over black or if the crackle was black over some other color, I am thinking that it might be an easy way to achieve an effect of aging....We shall see.

Meanwhile, I am taking the afternoon off to see if I can get smaller with the tatting.

See you tomorrow.

10 comments:

Jill said...

Wow! Is there anything you can't do? Tatting is so hard and doing it in mini is a huge undertaking...but if anyone could do it, it would have to be you! I can't wait to see it as it gets tinier. It's going to be amazing!
Hugs,
Jill

Minka said...

My niece gave herself a crackle manicure with black and gold. The black was on top and the gold looked like sequins. It was so cool. I never would have thought that black could look so good.

One of your tatted pieces looks like it has a snap in the center. Can't be. Right?

Caseymini said...

Jill, I am needle tatting. That is a bit faster than the regular shuttle tatting. I do that too, but the large shuttle is going to get in the way when I do the small stuff, so I figured that the needle would be better. We shall see....

Minka, all three pieces that you see have plain old buttons in the center. I want to do one with a snap in the center. If I did that, I could sew the other half of the snap on a shirt and just pop it on and off to wash the shirt. Cool idea. Thanks!

Kate said...

Now only a miniaturist would be trying on nail polish and thinking of the application(yes, deliberate pun) to use on their next project!

I agree with the other comments, you are a tremendously versatile artist!

Claudia said...

You are wonder woman! How do you do it? Tatting is hard!

xo
Claudia

Tabitha Corsica said...

My friend mentioned something about this new nail polish the other day. What I can't figure out is why someone would go to the trouble of applying a polish that looks like you NEED a re-polish when it's done?!

I've recently tried the "white glue" technique for crackle effects and found it quite effective and so much more inexpensive than buying crackle medium. I'm betting that nail polish isn't cheap either.

Nice tatting, btw... :-)

Judith said...

I've used the black crackle nail varnish with good effect on a halloween table I made (photos will follow on my blog soon). If you paint your item with acrylic paint first and then put a coat of clear nail varnish on top before using the crackle it works well. Judith x

Caseymini said...

Judith, thanks for the tip!

Susan, I am with you. Why make your nails messed up? I just got it for the experiment. It was three dollars and it will go a long way for me. I might use it on my nails for Halloween, but that's all.

Claudia, as I said, tatting is much easier when you do it with a needle. Just plug in "needle tatting" on your search engine. You can see people doing it on You Tube. It is actually much more enjoyable than the shuttle kind. And if you mess it up, it is easily fixable, unlike the shuttle kind.

Merri said...

So now chipped looking nail polish is all the rage? LOL, guess that goes along with allowing a hair-dye line to show, and wearing jeans with holes in them. Go figure.

Lelia said...

Lovely motifs with the buttons (I never saw a button I didn't admire)

what lovely tatting! good eye with color, too.