Tatting is the art of making lace by hand, it dates back to the Victorian ears and possibly earlier. To stave off the nights of boredom ladies would tat doilies to decorate their homes, and decorative trim for their dresses and bonnets. Lace wasn't as readily available in the shops then as it is today, and if you wanted something, you often had to make it yourself. Tatted lace was made with nothin
g more than thread and a small hand held tool called a "shuttle". These days not too many of us have use for doilies in our homes and if we actually want lace for something, we pop out to the store and buy it by the meter. Which is why in North America tatting is virtually extinct, though it does still have a small following over seas. In recent years someone has tried to revive the art by coming up with a method of tatting that uses a needle rather than a shuttle, and still there seems to be little change in the number of people who still practice the art. I'm a traditionalist, I was taught by my grandfather when I was 8 years old to use the shuttle. He had learned from his mother when he was 13 and continued to tat daily until he passed away in 2011 at the ripe old age of 96. This site is both to honor his memory, and to share with you my love for tatting. It features several of my recent projects, but most especially my originally designed tatted Christmas balls. I may love to tat, but I'm not a lace and doilies kind of girl, so for me the challenge has been to bring this ancient art into the modern day. That's where the idea for Christmas balls came into play. I've seen other ball patterns in some of Grampie's early pattern books, and a few years ago I came across a beautifully decorated tree done all in lace and other Victorian baubles. I knew then that I could come up with better and brighter patterns, and even incorporated beads to give them a little more color and sparkle. For me tatted Christmas ornaments are the perfect way to take an ancient art and make it into something useful for today. Each of my ball patterns are uniquely my own and are all original, I custom create them to my customers specifications. You my choose the ball, thread and bead colors, plus one of three current patterns. Each one takes between 2 and 4 hours to make, so it's a labor of love, that's for certain, they're not something that can be mass produced in a short amount of time! To have a look at my patterns to decide which you like best, have a eek in my photo albums :)
I do make other custom pieces, like book marks, snowflakes and the occasional doily. Thank you for visiting my site and supporting my efforts to keep this art alive :)
